Vicious Circle
by Jack Tamara
Summary: At Beverly Hills Champion High School, the alliances are shifting. Friends are now enemies, and enemies are turning into allies. Nobody knows who and what to trust anymore. Only one thing's for certain: someone is bound to suffer the ugly consequences.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Sequel to Infamous. Don't read if you haven't read the first book. Enjoy. ******

War of the Worlds

The house was a warzone. It had already been two whole weeks, and it still felt like everywhere she tread, she was stepping on broken glass. It was so loud nowadays, and yet still so silent.

Maybe today would finally change that, and all of them could resume their daily lives again without all that moping around.

Jade Lewallen stood in front of her oval-shaped mirror and wrapped strands of her silky, dark brown hair around her fingers. She had finally managed to get it into an impeccable French twist style. Promptly applying her favorite Fekkai hair spray so that there were no loose strands hanging around her face, Jade did a tiny, three sixty turn, so that she could admire herself at all angles.

She looked perfect and ready to go. Dressed in a professional, navy Valentino suit with the matching skirt, Jade carefully selected Tiffany tear-drop earrings and a Karen Movado watch from her special collection. Closed toed ballet flats gave the look a more casual feel, so that Jade didn't come off as austere, or worse—Jade sneered at the thought of this—as a _librarian_.

Sounds like someone's still holding a grudge.

Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, Jade grabbed her monogrammed Louis Vuitton purse off her dressing table seat, and swept out of her room, leaving her customary Dior scent behind in the enclosed space.

Feeling extremely satisfied that she looked the very picture of poise and calm, Jade let her heels make a loud clicking sound as she descended the stairs. She had never felt more ready.

In a few minutes, some of the most important newspapers in the entire Los Angeles area would be standing in their family room, asking them all types of questions. It didn't matter that they were only interested in how the soon-to-be family was coping with the accident of Chase van Buren. As far as Jade was concerned, she was going to make the front page of L.A. Times, and that was the most important part.

Walking into the family room, Jade noted that she was fashionably late, as usual. She was the last one there, three minutes ahead of the press, and five minutes behind everybody. Perfect timing on her part.

Sitting down in the center chair, Jade ignored the palpable tension in the room. Some people were glaring at her, and almost everybody sat as far apart as possible. If they were supposed to be portraying the image of a close-knit family full of love and caring, they were all failing miserably. Nobody was going to believe that this was the picture of a family brought together through devastation . It looked more like they were all awkwardly trying not to touch and interact with each other, which wasn't too far off from the truth.

Preparing herself for the press, Jade reached into her bag and whipped out a tiny, pale pink handkerchief, and practiced dabbing the corner of her eyes with it. She was careful not to mess up her eye-shadow and mascara. She didn't need raccoon eyes when they took her picture.

A simple dab and a sniffle would do just fine. That way, when Jade wrote her college admissions essay, she could talk about how painful it was to almost lose her dearest friend and step-sister, and how the experience had taught her to appreciate life and never take anything for granted. Then, as a deal-sealer, she would include a picture of herself on the front of a major newspaper, sobbing her eyes out heartbrokenly while the headline screamed "Jade Lewallen Grieves Over Step-sister's Near Death Experience!" above as a caption.

Harvard, Stanford, and Yale would just eat their hearts out and immediately accept her, while offering her their condolences. She would take it in quietly and nod like the perfect, little girl she was, and no one would be the wiser about how she really felt.

It was surprising how good of an actress Jade could be when she actually put her mind to it.

She practiced the tiny dab again, just to make sure she had it down perfectly. To her right, Blake van Buren snorted with disbelief. "Cut the act, Lewallen. It's completely see-through." Ever since that night two weeks ago when she'd found him making out with Trisha Fields after she'd purposely left him with a huge erection, things had been back to the normal bickering for them.

She glared at him, even though she was supposed to be practicing her wide, doe-eyed look. "I assure you I am very emotionally upset by this," she hissed back at him, unable to say something unladylike in the presence of her father and Hannah, who both believed that she was genuinely upset.

Idiots.

As if Jade hadn't been waiting for the day that something would happen to send the van Burens back to that dump they came from.

True, Jade hadn't exactly anticipated Chase getting herself into a car accident, but it served the same purpose, nonetheless.

She might have felt a little sort, but she certainly wasn't going to deny it was what she'd been after this whole entire time. Now all that remained was for Hannah to pack her belongings and get her over-sized ass out of Jade's home.

Jade straightened her skirt neatly, and smoothed it over her legs. She vowed to give Blake his proper due of insults later, when she could be as verbally abusive as she wanted. He would get so moody and quiet sometimes lately, that she actually missed sparring with him back and forth, if only to establish some semblance of normality again.

Well, she would just have to see what she could do.

"Mr. Lewallen, your guests are here," Carlotta stuck her head into the room, announcing the awaited arrivals.

Arielle watched as Jade shook out her hankie, and scoffed quietly to herself. Jade absolutely loved it when all the attention was directed and focused on her. No doubt her sister had been envisioning some kind of scene where all the news reporters begged for her attention, never mind that this was supposed to be about the entire family.

"Mr. Lewallen," a brave female reporter started by stepping forward, once all the photographers and new reporters had filed into the room, and were either now lounging off to the side or sitting in front of the six of them. "How do you feel about this accident and what it says about your family?"

Mark cleared his throat, looking entirely at ease. Years of law practice had ensured that he would have no fears of public speaking whatsoever, something Jade had certainly inherited from him.

"Well, this very unfortunate incident has only shown me how precious my family is to me. In these few days, I've come to think of Chase as my own daughter. We are all in a state of extreme shock right now, which is why we put off this news conference for two weeks. And to me, all that says about my family, is that we've become closer than ever, and that we've all learned that we need to stick together as a whole." Mark Lewallen said this all in a self-assured voice, and Arielle wondered if he actually believed in what he said.

Probably not. Mark Lewallen has certainly learned how to bullshit his way through life on more than one occasion.

Another reporter from the Beverly Hills Herald stepped forward, his name badge glinting on his chest. "Mr. Lewallen, is it true that the day of your daughter's accident, you and Mrs. van Buren were at the Beverly Hills Hotel, getting high?"

Jade saw a key opportune moment to step in. "Father, I'll take this one." She told Mark, who now had a slightly red tinge in his cheeks, which either meant that he was very embarrassed or very angry.

Turning to the reporter, she answered, "It is true that my father was stoned that night." She paused dramatically for this to sink in, looking Peter the reporter straight in the eyes, "However, it was not his fault. An unruly teenager decided it would be funny to try to add pot into the brownies, which is why all the adults at the engagement party were stoned. And as for who it is, I really can not say." She sighed regretfully like she really was upset about it.

And just like that, all the attention turned to Jade.

"Ms. Lewallen, was it one of your friends? Tell us something, please!" A mousy girl squeaked up front. She used one hand to push her horn-rimmed glasses up onto the curve of her rounded nose. Behind her, all the reporters were scribbling furiously on their yellow pads.

"Oh yes, Jade. Tell them something, _please_," Blake mocked cruelly from beside her, and Jade wisely ignored him. This was her time in the spotlight, and she wasn't going to let him ruin it for her. Besides, he couldn't complain. She could've chosen to rat him out, after all, and let Mark Lewallen deal with him, but she didn't.

"I really can not say," Jade ducked her head like she was abashed. "And as for if we're friends, let's just say that we're more of acquaintances with certain benefits."

Yeah. Temporary one-night sexual benefits.

"So, Ms. Lewallen, it sounds like you already knew about this person's plan to put pot inside the brownies. Is this true, and if so, why didn't you do anything about it?" The mousy woman pressed again, and Jade wondered vaguely why nobody stepped forward to shut her up. When she realized that this was because everybody else wanted to know the answer to the question too, her irritation only grew.

However, when she answered, her tone gave away none of her annoyance. "It is true that I knew about it, but only until the guests were all eating the brownies. I had absolutely no prior knowledge about this incident, and it pained me to know that one of my fellow peers would be so immature. I will certainly make sure it never happens again."

Arielle and Blake both exchanged a look at Jade's words. She seemed to have bypassed the fact that she'd been privy to the information for almost an hour and a half before the brownies were served.

More like conveniently forgot about it.

"Anyways," Jade continued on, not noticing the silent look that Arielle and Blake had both given each other. "I feel like in the light of my dear sister's accident, such pranks seem almost trivial. So, I am more than willing to let this go and put it behind me."

Jade could see a fuming Mark glaring at her from the left, but she chose to ignore it. It certainly wasn't her fault that everybody found her more interesting than her father. There was a time when Jade would've seen such a look and immediately backed off, but she had decided long ago that she was tired of wanting for her father's approval, which she was never going to get anyway.

She turned to her side to meet her father's glare and flashed him sweetly sickening smile that was meant to directly ridicule his futile efforts.

"Ms. Lewallen, were you close to your step-sister?" A different, male reporter stepped forward, and Jade turned her gaze back forward again, feeling relief that the topic had changed to one she could answer easily.

"Of course!" Jade exclaimed, and put a hand to her heart, as if she were mortally offended that he would even have to ask the question. "I loved Chase as if she were my own sister. And, I was so happy when she came. She basically became the sister I'd always wanted."

Arielle noted that this last sentence was directed nastily at her, and her face grew red with anger at Jade's words.

After all, Arielle had played the role of Jade's faithful sidekick for years, and to hear herself so blatantly dismissed and replaced stung more than she thought it would. It was as if years of cultivating friendships and inside jokes was gone, and Arielle no longer existed in Jade's mind anymore.

Seeing Arielle's upset face, Blake spoke up spitefully, unable to restrain himself any longer in the face of Jade's manipulative lies. "Stop the bullshit, Jade. You hated my sister with a burning passion. In fact, you hate my entire family because you want all of us to just go back to where we came from. Don't stop now, just because you have an actual audience."

Jade bit the inside of her cheek until it nearly drew blood, and reminded herself to stay calm while in the presence of other civilized beings. It was just like Blake to ruin the nice, little story she was spinning. "I have no idea where he got this idea," she assured the press, while giving Blake the evil-eye, "Granted, the two of us have never been more than acquaintances"—she let that word suspend in the air, hoping someone would pick up on the clue she was giving them—", but I assure you, I adore Chase with all my heart."

Blake and Arielle simultaneously rolled their eyes. "You're pathetic when you pretend to be nice, Jade. Why don't you show them what a bitch you can be? If it helps, try to remember what almost happened that night two weeks ago," Blake sneered derisively. He certainly remembered what'd happened and the memory of it still made him angry.

"Oh, you mean that night when you were stuck in that inconvenient state?" Jade asked sweetly in a low voice, so that the press wouldn't hear. The triumph of her victory would forever be imprinted in her mind forever. The one time the mighty Blake van Buren had lusted and begged for her was too great to forget.

Clearly, he hadn't forgotten either, except for his reasons were completely different from hers.

"I actually meant that night you were willing to whore yourself out just for a petty revenge scheme," Blake said in her ear, "Beverly Hills Prophet would certainly get a kick out of that, don't you think?"

"Oh, please," Jade scoffed, as she tried to cover her apprehension. She really didn't want everybody to know about the more personal aspects of her life, and there was a part of her that didn't know just how far Blake would go. Not that she would ever tell him that, though. "Don't be sore, just because you weren't man enough for me to want to finish what I started." She told him with much more confidence than she actually had.

Blake hissed dangerously when he heard that. "You don't want to insult me any more than you have to. From what I've heard from Arielle, your resources are growing thin. Besides, I'm sure you don't want to wake up tomorrow morning to find Beverly Hills Herald reporting details of Jade Lewallen's most intimate lingerie. In fact, I think I'll tell them right now, in front of your dear, old father and Arielle." He opened his mouth, making it look like he was about to divulge important information.

Jade shot up from her seat when she saw that, and quickly worked to turn the situation around. She stood up regally and told everyone in her calmest voice."I regret to inform everyone that this little session must come to an end. Unfortunately, we have a pressing matter to attend to right now, and will be unavailable for questioning. If you wish, you may call to schedule a private interview. Until then, Carlotta will show you the way out."

And to everybody's dismay, Jade hurriedly swept out of the room, and before they knew it, Carlotta was pushing everybody towards the front door. A few of them grumbled at not being able to get to some of the core questions they'd pre-planned, and some people glared at the mousy reporter for taking up two questions, even though they would've eventually asked the same question anyway.

Upstairs, Jade was furious. Not only had she missed out on her front page picture opportunity, but today was also supposed to be her chance to show Beverly Hills what she had. Instead, all she'd done was let herself get riled up by Blake. And now, there'd probably never be the same opportunity again, unless Blake went and got himself wrapped around a tree, too.

"You're a despicable excuse for a human," Jade spat at Blake as soon as he approached the landing on the second floor.

"I beg your pardon," Blake's infuriatingly cold eyes glinted maniacally. "I may be an "immature and unruly teenager", but at least I'm not some kind of a slutty whore."

Jade took it in with a stunned expression on her face. She knew she'd acted a little promiscuous that night two weeks ago, but there was a fine line between knowing and hearing it directly from your worst enemy.

Then, she raised her hand once the shock had passed, and for a moment, she looked like she about to slap him across the face.

She didn't.

Instead, she curled her fingers together and drove her tiny fist hard into his stomach, and felt a great wave of satisfaction and power when he doubled over, out of breath.

"Bitch," he gasped in between hitched gulp of airs. He looked like he was about to say more, but Arielle quickly grabbed his wrist and rubbed tiny circles around it soothingly like she was trying to calm him down.

"Don't bother, Blake. You're better than this," Arielle told him straight into his green eyes, not looking at her sister once. She didn't want for the two of them to be fighting and caught in a head-lock when her father and Hannah made their way up the stairs. Based on the angry tirade her father had worked himself into after the reporters left, she thought it would be best to let him cool down with his requisite brandy.

Blake looked at her with a look in his eyes like he was going to argue the point, but then closed his mouth with great effort. "You're right. She's not worth my time." Then, having said so, Jade watched as the two of them left the hallway for Arielle's room without so much a backward glance at her.

Anger mounting at the sight of the two of them walking together, she stalked towards her own room, and slammed the door with unnecessary force.

It had already been two whole weeks, and Jade had yet to see Arielle groveling at her feet. In fact, if anything else, Arielle seemed to have replaced Jade with Blake. Now, it was Blake she hung out with at Queens after school. Blake that she ate lunch with. Stupid, dipshit Blake that she did homework with, even though Blake had been so lazy and stupid he'd needed to be held back a year at his old school.

Seeing the fast blooming friendship truly annoyed Jade to no end, even though it shouldn't have. After all, Jade had always considered herself an independent woman, who needed nor depended on anyone.

But now, all she could think about was how much home life sucked. She used to love spending time in her bedroom at home but now, she was always finding excuses so that she could stay out a little longer.

Everybody seemed to be mad at her these days. Arielle was under some deluded notion that Jade didn't treat her with enough respect and trust. Blake was still sore about how she'd ditched him unceremoniously that one night, after leading him on. Mark wasn't talking to her because of the embarrassment he'd suffered from both her bringing Sienna to dinner and coming home to find the remnants of the ill-fated after-party. In fact, the only ones that weren't angry with her were Hannah and Connor, who seemed to have some kind of puppy-fascination with Jade that sickened her to no end.

And then there was school social time. Duke and her were being awkward because she'd broken up with him. West was so entirely supportive of Duke that it was bordering hero worship. Ryder wasn't talking to her just because of that little blackmail she'd used a while ago.

And Winter—Jade groaned when she thought of her friend. This was by far the lowest blow—faithful Winter, had decided to join the cheerleaders. And they had apparently accepted her as their own because of Jade's influence, forgetting entirely that Winter had been the school's biggest loner before Jade came along and turned her from a nobody into a somebody.

Jade had never felt so betrayed in her whole entire life.

Fortunately for her, she'd been busy the past few weeks meeting with Principal Cracow, arranging things for the graduation ceremony, prom, and the upcoming student body elections that she hadn't needed to worry about the lunch crisis. But now that those were over, she was going to have to figure out what to do. Lunch was social hour. It wasn't just to be seen, it was to be seen with the right people. And now that the right people had decided to divide themselves, Jade was just going to have to create more suitable people that she could get to do her work.

While it wasn't hard to do that, Jade wanted the old "right" people. Not only that, she also wanted for her life to get out of the slow crawl it was in so that the earth could go back spinning the proper way again. Unfortunately, that didn't seem very likely at the moment, either.

Life was so terribly fucking annoying sometimes. And it had chose to hit Jade at one of the worst possible moments.

In just less than twenty-four hours, Principal Cracow was going to start the commencement of the student body class elections for the new school year. In order for Jade to claim the title of Associated Student Council President for four years straight, she had to win this one last election.

Except that this time, she was going to have to do it without the help of Arielle. There would be no one to intimidate the competition with. No one to help mail order and design bags with JL monogrammed across it to hand to the female population. No one to sneak out of class with so that they could get congratulatory Jamba Juices and shopping sprees when Jade won by yet another landslide.

Because that someone who was normally supposed to do all those things was currently holed up with Blake van Buren in her room, doing homework while songs form Death Cab for Cutie floated through the doors. If Jade had to listen to "I Will Possess Your Heart" for one more time, she was honestly going to lose it and go on a murderous rampage.

She could only hope that Arielle would come to her senses soon and stop all this nonsense. Then, the two of them could go back to plotting the demise of uppity classmates and listening to actual music from Kanye West. It wouldn't even take much. Jade missed Arielle enough so that with a little ass-kissing, Jade was sure she would be willing to let the past go so that the two of them could be the twin sisters they were supposed to be.

Then, as if to mock her optimistic thinking, another blast of "I Will Possess Your Heart" wafted under her door for what had to be the hundredth time in two weeks.

Jade gave a small scream of frustration and threw her pearl hand-comb set at the unfortunate wall, hearing it make a gratifyingly loud sound.

Walking over to her iPod stand and giving the two of them her own blast of music, Jade changed out of her navy blue suit and into her Victoria Secret sweatpants. This was it. She was really left with no choice then.

It was time for some change.

**AN: Please Read and Review! Thanks! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: It's been a while, so this one's extra long. **

Hospital Scenes:

She could feel it before she even opened her eyes. The smell was that sickening. In fact, everything sickened Chase. In the two weeks that she'd been here, she'd already learned how to hate hospitals with a passion. It reeked of that soapy smell and latex gloves. It had been even worse before. She'd been sharing a room with a patient who'd had to get her blood drawn every eight hours.

Chase's stomach lurched painfully as she almost threw up at the mere memory of it. She hated blood. From the way it looked to the rusty smell it had, thinking about it for too long just made her queasy.

In fact, she had fainted when the doctors told her that she'd lost so much blood she'd needed a transplant. Given her way, Chase would've rather died than to have watched the tubes with the red fluid injected into her. As it was, she was knocked out at the time, and hadn't found out about anything until her personal medical team had come in and told her that she'd suffered three broken ribs, two broken legs, a broken arm, a head injury, and various cuts and bruises.

So now, after a mind-blowing amount of monotony, Chase was still stuck in the L.A. Hospital after two whole weeks of surgery and white-wash walls. She laid on the bed, and slowly inched her eyes open, hoping that she would wake up one day and find herself back in her room at the Lewallen Estate.

No such dumb luck.

Chase cast her eyes around the room she'd come to consider as a prison, and let them land on the only bearable looking thing in the room, a boy whose beautiful features were passive and unmoving on his face.

Ryder Ferreira looked like he was sleeping soundly, his head pillowed on the hospital bed, next to Chase's left leg. Even though his body was probably sore from being in such a contorted position all night, there was a sort of peaceful tranquility on his features.

Chase reached her unbroken hand out and tentatively touched Ryder's fine, blond hair. It had amazed her to no end when she'd waken up to find him crowded around her along with the rest of the family, especially when she'd thought he would've still been mad about her pushing him away that night two weeks ago.

But that had been one thing and she'd quickly pushed it out of her, thinking passively that it had been nice of him to drop by. She figured it was just a one-time sort of thing.

And then, he started visiting her every single day in the hospital, and it was all Chase could do to keep her jaw from dropping.

After all, Ryder Ferreira was the captain of Beverly Champion High's varsity soccer team. From what Chase had last heard, the school's uber-competitive team was supposed to be top three in the state. She didn't even know how he managed to schedule enough practices for them to kick Riverdale's ass _and_ visit her for these last two weeks.

Regardless, he shown up every single day without fail. Even Blake, with all his brotherly concern, didn't spend as much time with her as Ryder had. And even though her brother had always been very vocal about Ryder's "hidden" intentions, she was grateful when he wisely ignored Blake and continued their daily hospital rendezvous.

At first, Chase had been nervous and hesitant about having him around. It wasn't that she didn't want his company, because she did. She was just scared that he'd eventually come to see her as a burden and would start to resent her in time. After all, Chase knew a handful of things that were more interesting than spending a day in the hospital.

But, as the days wore on, and his routine continued habitually, she learned to let it go and fully appreciate him for all his help.

Because, if she had to admit it, nobody got things done like Ryder Ferreira. Oh, she'd seen many different forms of persuasion before. With her brother, it was always intimidation, whether it was with his switchblade or his fists. With Arielle, she used her feigned innocence against you, making it so you couldn't say no without feeling like you were committing a horrible crime by hurting her feelings. And from what she'd heard from her brother, Jade liked to play things underneath the radar. What she wanted, she got through deception and lies.

And from her silent observations of Ryder, he had a certain way with the females. He'd cross his arms in a way that made his arm muscles protrude, and smile with a look in his eyes that made the person he was talking to feel like the most important being in the world. And when he really brought out his British accent, the nurses just went wild.

It seemed terribly shallow to Chase, but it also seemed to be terribly effective too. He had, after all, managed to secure her a private room, lunch delivery specials, and a comfier, Tempurpedic mattress this way. And since Chase was no longer in the vicinity of a blood patient, she really couldn't complain about his methods, even if they did earn her a lot of jealous stares from the internship nurses.

Now, staring down at her official best friend, Chase felt a surge of appreciation for everything that he'd done for her. She attempted to shift her body slightly so that she wasn't looking at him at such an awkward angle, but only succeeded in rousing him from his sleep.

He yawned, stretched his arms out in front of him, and blinked sleepily.

"Morning," Chase said cheerfully to him. She couldn't help but feel happy at the moment. Her brother was supposed to stop by today, and he'd said that he had a surprise for her. And lately, stuck in a pointless existence, any sort of distraction was highly welcome. It was sort of sad to see how much her life priorities had changed over the last few weeks.

"Morning," Ryder replied, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He reached to his side and pulled up a big, brown bag. Chase's eyes lit up when she saw that it was Einstein Bros Bagels. "Here you go. I stopped to pick this up on my way here."

"Thanks," Chase said happily, reaching in and pulling out her routine Cinnamon Sugar Bagel and latte. Ryder had paid for almost every dinner and breakfast that she had stopped counting how much she owed him long ago. Chase figured that once she regained use of her writing arm, she'd total it up and pay him back.

"So, are you ready for some more?" Ryder said, nibbling his Chocolate Chip bagel and pulling the book off of the nightstand.

Chase nodded eagerly at him. She'd once let it slip how bored she was, and he'd immediately ran down the nearest Barnes and Noble to get her something that could combine her interests.

Since literature and theatre were her passions, he'd brought back a whole Shakespeare collection, and had taken it upon himself to read it to her dramatically with alternating male and female voices. And sometimes, if Chase was in a lot of pain and _really_ begged, he would even stand up and act out entire scenes. It amused her to no end, seeing Beverly Champion High's resident playboy wave his arms flailing in the air while attempting Juliet's voice in a falsetto.

"Romeo! Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Ryder read, his tan arms extending towards the distance while his big hands ruined the Juliet effect he'd been trying to go for with his high-pitched voice. Chase laughed lightly when she saw him go all out.

"This is embarrassing," Ryder heard her laugh and resumed his normal voice, grumbling good-naturedly. "The things I do for you, honestly."

"Please keep going," Chase smiled, despite the fact that it made her face hurt from all the bruises and cuts.

"Fine," Ryder huffed and resumed his place. "But I'm only letting you take advantage of me because you're injured."

Chase nodded vigorously, wondering at Ryder's talent at performing one man shows so successfully.

He flipped a page in his book and continued, "Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or if thou wilt not, be but my sworn love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet!" Somewhere in Juliet's passionate soliloquy, Ryder had grabbed onto Chase's good hand and had began gripping and moving it with the amount of fervor he'd believed Juliet to be invested with.

His eyes left the page and he looked into Chase's eyes, but didn't let go of her hand. Chase felt his eyes boring into hers, and somehow the distance between the two of them seemed to fall away so slowly that she had no idea how his face had ended up mere millimeters away from her own. She felt momentarily dizzy, and her eyes fluttered shut softly, as if she were waiting for him to make the first move.

He was so close now, that she could smell his boyish scent radiating off of him…

And then Ryder was hauled up from his chair by the collar of his shirt. Chase's eyes flew open, just in time to see that Blake and Ryder were as close to each other as she and Ryder had been a mere minute ago.

"Well, I must say that although this has been rather entertaining and _touching_ to watch, I would appreciate it if you kept your hands off my sister," Blake's coldly distinctive voice sneered.

"Blake, stop," Chase said angrily. The two of them had been getting along so well before her brother had shown up and ruined everything. There had been no awkwardness so far, as far as the kissing incident went. But now, she just felt embarrassed that after all the time Ryder had spent on her, he was getting treated like this. And as pathetic as it was, she wasn't sure how she could entertain herself without him. "Put him down right now," Chase said firmly in a nicer voice, noticing that the tips of Ryder's toes were almost skimming the ground.

Blake spared his sister a glance into her pleading eyes, and loosened his grip. "Maybe you should learn to stay away. It's just like you to start groping her before she can even fight back to defend herself," Blake growled, not willing to let it go without the last word. He didn't like the way that Ryder and Chase had gotten so close over the last few weeks. He still remembered that one night when Ryder had abandoned Chase, leaving his sister all alone in some deserted neighborhood. He would've thought that Chase would've been slower to forgive something like that. "Chase, I want you to stop this." He told his sister firmly in a his usual brotherly fashion.

"Blake!" Chase cried, not believing her ears. He was basically ordering her only consistent visitor to stop seeing her. "I can't believe you. Ryder's the only one who's been here every day. And if I remember correctly, you haven't visited ever since Thursday."

She knew it was a low blow to play the guilt card, but she was furious and worried that Blake's overprotective, brotherly feelings would scare Ryder away for good. And given the way that things had been progressing so nicely, she would hate for the two of them to go back to being strangers again. She figured Blake could take a little admonishing anyway.

"Sorry," Blake ran a palm over his face in embarrassment at his own human failing.

"It's fine. Anyways, you said you had a surprise for me?" Chase said in a cheerful tone, trying to steer away from the dangerous direction the previous topic had been veering towards.

"Yeah," Blake said, finally turning his glare away from Ryder, who—to his credit—managed to glare back unblinkingly in the face of a hostile Blake van Buren. "I thought since you'll be cooped up in here indefinitely, I might as well get you something entertaining."

At this point, Chase only just noticed Arielle as the blond stepped forward from the shadows at Blake's words, and produced an adorable ginger kitten from her purse. "Blake and I thought you'd like a kitty to play with during the day, when we're all in school."

Chase smiled lightly and offered up her good arm, so that she could hold the tiny hairball creature. She didn't want to admit it aloud, but the idea of cats had scared her ever since she'd found a dead one in her bag. Still, it was a nice thought on the part of Blake. At least the kitty was vastly different from the strangled black cat she'd encountered not too long. "Thanks," she murmured, immersing herself in scratching the kitten's soft, ginger fur with her fingers.

Blake nodded in acknowledgement. "There's someone else here to see you too," Blake said stiffly, and Chase wondered who it was. Mostly everybody she knew had already visited within the first week. Even some people like Duke and Winter and West had stopped by briefly to give her their sincerest regards. Chase had never thought she'd see the day when the most popular people in school would actually concern herself about her welfare.

And at that moment, the leader of the school's most infamous group herself strode through the doorway, throwing the door open in a way that announced Jade Lewallen's arrival to the entire hospital wing.

" Hey Chase," Jade said blithely, moving forward with a certain fluidity in her motion. Watching her, Chase was suddenly reminded of the first time she'd seen her soon-to-be step-sister. There had been an air of intimidation and power around her persona, and time seemed to have only increased it.

When Jade was in the room, she positively _dominated_. The atmosphere seemed to crinkle and vibrate with energy, and Chase was soon convinced that there was nothing more fear-inspiring the vision of Jade gliding forward determinedly with a blankly cold stare on her face, looking like she was about to take over the world.

"Sorry I couldn't make it earlier. School business coming up, you know, the usual," Jade yanked Ryder's empty chair towards herself, and managed to sink down into it with a dismissively disdainful look at the peeling paint.

"It's fine," Chase said, hugging her new kitten close tightly to her chest, using it as a sort of shield.

"Anyways," Jade continued breezily, "I figured that now would be a good time for the two of us to spend some bonding time together, since we're going to be sisters after all."

"Thanks Jade. It's nice of you to visit me in the hospital," Chase told her, wondering when she'd been transformed into such a stiffly polite person.

Jade nodded succinctly. "Speaking of that, do you know when you get out of this place?"

Chase shook her head. She'd started a habit of pestering the nurses to let her know when she could leave the hospital, but all the answers had been fairly vague. "Soon, I hope," she answered, not wanting Jade to think that Chase was purposely trying to withdraw from the conversation or with-hold information.

"I better secure your release date today, then," Jade sighed and whipped out her Blackberry, and Chase didn't tell her that she'd been asking the same question for two weeks to no avail. Besides, a part of her had a nagging feeling that if Jade said she was going to secure Chase's release date, then it'd be done with little question.

"So, besides this whole hospital issue, I was actually going to line us up for spa treatments. I'm starting to think that you're going to have some difficulty with that, though," Jade took this time to take a good look at Chase, who was currently swathed in bandages and casts and cuts. Jade's finely waxed eyebrow raised when she saw the neck brace that connected with Chase's spine.

"Lord, is there a place where you're not broken?" Jade laughed shortly, even though Chase could tell her heart wasn't in it at all. Somehow, Jade's laugh made Chase strangely even more self-conscious about her appearance than she'd thought possible.

"My left arm," Chase waggled her fingers weakly in response while the ginger tabby occupied the rest of her arm. "And other, random places."

Jade tapped the edge of her Blackberry against her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe we should just stick with getting you a facial makeover, then." Nodding to herself affirmatively, she keyed something into her phone's keypad. Chase wondered why Jade was being so nice to her all of a sudden. The only time the two of them had really interacted was when Jade had taken her out to Queens that one night. And now, Jade was acting as if the two of them were best friends. The drastic change was slightly unnerving.

Jade noticed Chase staring at her, and turned her blood red lips in what she must've thought was a reassuring manner. "Don't worry, we'll get that face fixed in no time," she told Chase, patting her on the arm, and Chase didn't have the heart to pull away .

"And just what exactly do you mean by that?" Blake hissed, as Jade stood up against and passed right by him.

"I mean," Jade turned around to look at Chase unabashedly, "That I'm sure Chase's face has seen better days and could use a little surgical help. Those nasty scars look permanent."

Then she turned to Blake and hissed in a voice that only he could hear, "Plus, she's related to you. Do you really need or want me to elaborate on that?" She shot him a venom-filled look and, without waiting for his answer, she swept out of the hospital room, without so much as sparing him a backward glance to see how her retort had gone down.

Blake watched her go, jaws snapped tight. He didn't give a flying fuck what Jade Lewallen thought of him, but making a move on his unsuspecting sister was just too much.

"Chase, don't do anything she says," Blake said vehemently, moving in onto the chair that Jade had just vacated.

"For once, I think I'm going to have to agree with your brother," Ryder said seriously, dropping his formerly cheerful tone.

"She doesn't seem that bad," Chase said. It wasn't because she trusted Jade implicitly, or anything. But the facial makeover Jade had offered to help remove the ugly scars and bruises on her face was incredibly tempting. These past weeks, all Chase could do was ruefully look away every time she caught a reflection of herself. And even though Ryder assured her that he barely noticed them at all—a blatant lie, since the raw, angry cuts were all over her face--, she couldn't help but wonder why Ryder had coiled away in disgust, especially when he was used to so many other impeccably gorgeous girls, like Arielle and Jade and Winter.

"They're right," one of the girls aforementioned came and sat on Chase's crisply white hospital bed. "I've lived with Jade for almost seventeen years, and she is almost never up to anything good. She delights in bringing people down to their weakest point, and then crushing them and using them."

Ryder nodded vigorously at Arielle's statement, and Chase had to resist the urge of ask him what Jade had done to him before.

"So, you see why we would want you to stay away from her. We're looking out for you," Blake told her, and Chase gazed at the three of them. They made an odd sort of team image together. She would've never thought to put these three together.

"I'll be fine," Chase forced herself to say, even though she couldn't see the harm in letting Jade take care of her current facial feature issues.

The three of them relaxed when they heard that. "Don't worry. You can trust us on this," Arielle smiled beatifically, "Jade Lewallen can be kind of a bitch." And to her credit, she was probably tired of taking Jade's shit for the greater majority of her life.

"Wow," came a voice from behind them. The four of them immediately turned and raised their eyes, even though all of them knew who it'd be. "It's so nice to know that's what everyone thinks of me."

"Hi," Chase said weakly, because she was the only one of the four that was on speaking terms with Jade at the moment. "Sorry. We didn't mean any of the things."

Jade favored Chase with her classic smile, "Don't be sorry, Chase. You haven't done anything. And luckily, I don't really care what those other three think of me, anyway."

At this point, she proceeded to slit her eyes sideways, giving all of them a look that was meant to make them feel like dirt underneath her shoe. Ryder and Arielle shifted uncomfortably, while Blake continued to eye her with unabashed despise.

Chase blinked in surprise. She would've thought that Jade and Arielle would be getting along fabulously, considering that they were twins after all.

"Anyways, I just wanted to stop by to tell you that I've ordered a release date for you to get out of this crappy room," Jade focused her attention on Chase again, ignoring the others once more. "You're leaving this Tuesday. After much persuasion, I've convinced the doctors to let you go. Of course, you're still in a bit of critical condition, but I've just bought you your own medical team that will live with you at Lewallen Estates until you make a full recovery."

Chase felt a smile slide over her face, no matter how painful it was to smile this wide. She was officially going to be free in two days, and at that moment, Chase found that she really didn't care what an evil person everybody said Jade Lewallen was. Surely, if Jade was such a bad person, she wouldn't have bothered to go all out for Chase.

"Thank you," Chase told Jade sincerely, feeling a surge of emotion go through her. "It means a lot to me."

Jade winked at her conspiratorially. "My pleasure." She checked her diamond encrusted watch and stood up. "I have to go, actually. There are a lot of details to be ironed out for your new medical plan."

Chase watched as Jade flipped her dark brown hair behind her shoulders. "But you should definitely eat lunch with me when you come back on Wednesday. We'll catch up then. I would love to get to know you better. Maybe we'll go shopping sometime."

The way she said it left little room for argument. Plus, now that Chase had gotten over her fear of the lunchroom, she did need a place to sit. Somehow, she had a feeling that a seat at Jade's table would propel her straight to the top of the social ladder. "Yeah, definitely." She answered, to all of Jade's offers.

Jade nodded, satisfied. Then, blowing a last air kiss to Chase, she left the room without a glance at the other three in the room.

"Is your sister that desperate?" Blake turned and scoffed to Arielle. "She must've realized that she has no friends left and now she's attempting to buy them since she can't keep them any other way."

Arielle didn't answer that question for a long time, and Chase realized that even if it had seemed as if Jade and Arielle were currently ignoring each other, Arielle must've still felt defensive about Jade. Chase could remember the number of times she and Blake had gotten into fights, only for one of them to defend the other against a united adversary.

"Jade's always that way," Arielle finally settled. "She takes in new people and molds them into her group. Then, when she gets tired of them, she'll just replace them. As long as Chase knows that, I think she'll be fine."

"That's like sending Chase as a sacrificial lamb into Jade's den," Ryder exclaimed and shook his head forcefully. "She's not going to be fine. I don't know exactly how Jade does it, but it's highly effective. Remember how Winter Beaumont used to be a comic fan loser who nobody wanted to be friends with. And now look at her. She's practically a walking, talking Barbie doll robot. You would never in a million years guess that she used to read "Marvel" during lunch. That's how good Jade is."

Blake's jaw tensed, and Chase knew that his mind was coming to a conclusion. "You're definitely not having anything to do with her. I don't want some sort of Jade clone as a sister," Blake said, agreeing with Ryder for the second time today. It was funny how well the two of them could get along when pushed to do so.

Chase visibly sank lower into her covers. She didn't know how to tell Blake that she couldn't just say no. It wasn't some social climber issue, either. Chase had never been particularly interested in that. It was more of the fact that Chase felt like she was indebted. Jade had just busted her from Los Angeles Hospital in the span of five minutes, and she didn't want to come off as ungrateful. Besides, there was a small feeling inside her that Jade was the kind of person who would not take "no" as an answer.

"I can't," Chase said softly, and her voice sounded pathetic, even to herself. She hated that she felt like she was caving in to peer pressure or whatever, but she figured that maybe one lunch with Jade couldn't hurt. She'd be out of there once she felt that Jade was satisfied.

"Chase, be rational," Blake told her in a warning sort of tone.

Chase sighed audibly at that. It was so easy for Blake to say that. Blake was the type who did whatever he wanted, regardless of how it might look. He always told her that nobody would control him, because his opinion was the only one that mattered in his life. It was easy for him to remain unfazed in the face of pressure.

"Look, Blake," Chase said tiredly. This entire ordeal had worn her out greatly. "Let's talk about this some other time, when I'm not stuck in a hospital room."

When it looked like he was about to argue, Chase quickly interjected, "Oh, and Blake, I've been meaning to ask you to do something for me. It just always slipped my mind when you were here."

Blake heard Chase and looked torn between wanting to pursue the previous subject, and wanting to help his sister. "What do I need to do?" He finally said, giving a dejected frown, promising himself to revisit the topic at a later date.

Chase smiled at her success, "That night of the engagement party, I accidentally lost my ring. It was really loose, and I think it might've fell off during the accident. Do you mind going to the car and getting it for me?"

Blake pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Where exactly is your car?" Chase realized with a jolt that she really didn't know. She'd assumed it was back in the Lewallen garage.

"It's at the junkyard." Arielle spoke up. "I know where it is."

"Okay. The two of us will go and get your ring." Blake directed, getting up with a sense of purpose in his walk. "And we'll get it to you as soon as possible."

"Thanks," Chase called after the two of them, as they left. She settled down comfortably in her pillows as she watched the tip of her brother's dark hair disappear with Arielle's blond one.

Outside, Blake removed the car keys from his pocket and twirled them around his finger idly. Today had just proved that Jade Lewallen was indeed the biggest bitch if he'd ever seen one. She was possibly the only person to ever grate on his nerves so much. It made Blake miss his old life, back before everyone seemed to have an ulterior motive for doing something.

And then there was the problem with his sister. It made him so pissed just thinking about it that he nearly crashed the car into the Bentley on the left lane while driving, even as Arielle was screaming for him to turn right. He gave the Bentley man the finger as the owner shouted incoherent words and threats from his car.

Blake was in a dangerous mood.

In a work of miracle, he somehow made it to the junkyard unscathed and whole. Blake viciously swung the car around and the tires gave a sickening squeal as Blake threw it into the narrow parking space, not even bothering to notice that the car's position made it nearly impossibly Arielle to get out on her side.

"Blake, calm down," she admonished, as she climbed out from his side of the car.

He ignored her, making a beeline for the nearest employee he saw. The faster he could get the stupid ring, the faster he'd be out of here and back at the hospital. Blake didn't like the idea of Ryder and Chase alone together, where Ryder could take advantage of his sister. If he had been able to get here without Arielle's, he would've asked her to stay behind to watch the two of them.

"We're here to see the Lewallen car that was brought here two weeks ago," Blake said coolly to the bald man who bore a startling resemblance to Humpty Dumpty with glasses.

The man frowned. "Are you sure? That car's a piece of twisted metal at this point."

Blake looked at the man contemptuously, marveling at his stupidity. "If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't have come here. Now I would appreciate it if you told me, because my fucking patience is running fairly low right now."

The man looked sullen and angry at Blake's impatience. "It's over in junkyard down at the very end." And that was all Blake needed before he was completely gone.

"Sorry, he's in a bad mood," he heard Arielle say to Humpty Dumpty as he bulldozed his way down the gravel-ridden path. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be angry, he smiled at what she said. Arielle was way too nice for her own good to the point where it was actually slightly endearing.

He walked slowly as he reached the end of the junkyard, and spotted the poor remains of the formerly glorious forest green Mercedes Benz. The headlights were completely smashed, and there was shatter glass all over the leather seats. The bender was bunched closely, like a slinky, and there were random, deep dents all over the car.

Blake cursed. Chase couldn't possibly expect him to actually find a tiny ring in this wreckage. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Besides, it was just a ring. He could always just buy her another one.

"Come on," Arielle said beside him, finally having caught up. "It's here somewhere. Probably on the floor in the first row. So, you'll take the driver's side, and I'll take the other side."

Blake gave a noncommittal grunt of disapproval as his previously solution dissipated, but joined Arielle nonetheless, wrenching open the smashed car door as hard as he could.

Frowning, he tried to squeeze himself through the doors, failing miserably. He pulled himself upright again, breathing heavily from his exertions. Blake looked at the small space wearily. There was no way he was going to be able to squeeze through that tiny opening.

He positioned himself sideways, to see if it would be easier, placing his left hand grippingly on the exterior of the car while using his right hand to try to pull himself through.

After making no progress, Blake pulled himself back out. When Arielle finished with the passenger side, he'd ask and see if she could manage to fit herself into that sham of an opening.

Disgustedly, Blake noted that his left palm was dirty. He looked at it disapprovingly and was about to wipe it off on the back of his jeans, when something made him pause.

He lifted his palm again, and brought it closer to examine just what exactly was on it.

Flecks. Black flecks of paint, in fact.

Puzzled, Blake ran a thumb over his palm and turned it this way and that. Chase's car was a pure green through and through. There wasn't a spot of black paint anywhere.

"Found it," Arielle called to him triumphantly, holding up the object with her thumb and pointer finger.

"Arielle, come over here," Blake motioned, barely acknowledging the fact that she'd just made it possible for him to never have to squeeze through the opening again.

"What?" Arielle tucked the ring into her purse, and walked over. Her brows were furrowed like she was curious.

"Why would there be black paint on an Everest green car?" Blake held his hand out to her so that she could see for herself.

"I don't know. It shouldn't, so I guess it's not from the green car then." Arielle cautiously took one of the larger black flecks, and squinted closely at it.

"So, if it's not from the green car, then it stands to reason that it came from another car." Blake finished, and finally dusted off the dirty paint bits.

"So, Chase crashed her car into someone else's that night?" Arielle bent down in kneeling position and examined the door herself. Now that she thought about it, the dent in the car looked more like a fender dent than something that came crashing into a tree.

"I can't think of any other reason," Blake angrily smashed a fist into the broken glass. It was too much of a fucking coincidence. First Chase had been kidnapped and deserted on unfamiliar territory, and now this. Someone was trying to deliberately sabotage his sister. And he could only think of one person who was cunning enough to pull something like that. "I can bet that Jade probably orchestrated all this."

Arielle shook her head adamantly. "No, she couldn't have. She was at the party when this happened. Besides, maybe we're over-thinking this. For all we know, a random driver could have accidentally rammed into her car."

Blake started walking back, not willing to believe that Arielle could still blindly defend Jade, even after their falling out. "Her car was at the side of the road. No driver is going to hit a totaled car from the side. This was deliberate."

Arielle fell into his slow gait as she pondered his logic. "I just can't see Jade doing this, though. She can be mean, sometimes, but she wouldn't take it this far. It's not her style."

"Your sister's style is to inflict as much pain and humiliation as possible," Blake growled through bared teeth.

"Jade likes to make it emotionally and psychologically painful. Whoever did this is going for pure physical." Arielle staunchly soldiered on, despite the fact that she was supposed to be supporting Blake instead of her own sister, who happened to be ignoring her at the moment anyway.

"Let's at least check to see if Jade's bought a car in the last month," Blake argued, knowing very well that Jade's car was a fiery red.

"Even on the off chance she did, it wouldn't be in the Lewallen accounts. It'll be in her private one at Bank of America. And no one can access those, not even me." Arielle said, a sour taste growing in her mouth at those last words. Now that she thought about it, it was just another one of the things that made it obvious that Jade had never trusted and treated her as an equal.

Blake looked at Arielle, but didn't say anything else. To him, Jade was the most likely person. It would certainly explain why she'd been trying to befriend Chase so much. He was certain that it was only a matter of time before Jade tried something else. Except this time, he would already know about it.

"Let's go," he muttered, not willing to argue the point with Arielle, who seemed to be in denial anyways. He got into his own car, revving the engine loudly, and leaving the junkyard behind him.

He was going to do whatever it took to find evidence against Jade. Now that he thought about it, Jade had been around at the time of Chase's first kidnapping too. It would all make sense. After all, it was no secret that Jade hated the van Burens and wanted all of them gone. She might just attempt to try something else on Chase. Except this time, Blake would be ready.

Time to find out just what exactly was going on.

**A/N: Thanks to everybody who read and reviewed the first chapter! I'm going to get started on replying to everyone as soon as I get this chapter uploaded. I know it's been a while, but I'm making an effort to update at least once every month, so that I'd have half of it finished before summer. Anyways, expect the next super-short update around the 21****st****. A longer update will follow on October 11, the day after I finish my SATs. Anyways, please enjoy and leave me feedback! I welcome all criticism and randomness. Thanks again to everyone! **


	3. Chapter 3

They say there's a thin line between love and hate

Ryder Ferreira glanced around the vicinity warily, as he slowly pulled his car into the student parking lot. All around him, the students were congregating, whining about yet another despicable Monday morning. He couldn't help but note how different the vibrant flashes of color and cacophony of sounds were from Chase's eggshell white and silent hospital room.

Ryder locked the door behind him and ran his fingers through his short strands of blonde hair. He had considered skiving off school today and spending the day at the hospital, but had ultimately decided against it. If he had to admit it, there was a morbid sense of fascination to see what would happen today. Now that Jade no longer had an excuse to hide away during lunchtimes, he had hoped to see what she would do in the face of her lost army.

He sighed, as he trudged up the expansive lawn. He should've just stayed at that hospital. It was too much to hope that without her usual minions, Jade would just retreat and let them all find a little peace. Instead, she'd probably take it upon herself to create more hellions just to destroy the rest of them for their betrayal.

It would've been a terrifying thought, but Ryder found himself too tired to care. He had soccer, his guy friends, and he had Chase. There was really much of anything that Jade could do to him anyway. As captain of the varsity soccer team, he was too important to be kicked off. Duke and West now despised Jade even more than he did. And Chase was, hopefully, too smart to fall for any of Jade's schemes.

Ryder tousled his short strands of beach blond hair and tried to ward off thoughts of the red-head. Every single time he saw her, he felt an unbearable wave of guilt. If only he hadn't been such a fucking coward to leave her alone in her inebriated state, her accident would've never happened.

He chewed on his lower lip relentlessly when he realized that Chase and Kate, the two girls he'd actually liked on more than just a physical level, had both ended up getting hurt or killed. Maybe it was just his curse to forever be the human detonator, or something.

Ryder walked into his first period, nodding briefly to some familiar faces standing in the doorway, and dropped his binder on the desk casually, taking a seat diagonally behind Jade. His new seat afforded him a perfect of Jade's dark ponytail, which swung over her shoulders. The side of her elfish face was one of peace and tranquility, but there was a hard, calculating feel about her, especially with her eyes trained critically at the door for every girl that walked in.

Ryder closed his eyes and did what he always used to do, back when Jade had been his tormentor instead of his leader. In his mind, he imagined Jade as a tiny girl, who didn't manage to look quite as impressive with a mournful look in her eyes that he knew would never appear on the real Jade's face. He'd eventually stopped when Jade befriended him, plagued with the feeling that she would be able to read his mind.

Unfortunately, he realized that it didn't seem to work anymore, as Ryder saw Jade turn her predatory face towards the intercom when Principal Cracow's raspy voice came on.

"Good morning and attention Beverly Champion High School Bobcats," Cracow said in a cheery attempt to instill some much needed school spirit into the student body. "As many of you have noticed, the school year is drawing to a close, and a new one will soon begin. I am pleased to announce that the annual student body elections will be taking place this week for next year's Associated Student Council. Nominations will be held in the Proscenium Theatre tomorrow, and each candidate must have a minimum of two nominations in order to run."

Ryder vaguely remembered that in the past years, Winter and Arielle had always been the ones to nominate Jade. Now that the three were obviously split up, maybe it would end Jade's three-year long reign as president of the Associated Student Council. Then, someone else could have their turn at the tormenting. He allowed himself to fantasize briefly about the kind of chaos he could unleash if he were the president of ASC.

"By campaigning, each nominee has agreed to proper Bobcat conduct to respect one another. I have high expectations that this will go very well, and I encourage all of you to seize this opportunity to make a difference. Until then, good luck to all prospective runners and have a good day."

Principal Cracow clicked off the intercom, and various people swiveled in their seats to look at Jade, who was sitting there unaffectedly, pretending like she couldn't feel the stare of her classmates.

Ryder frowned. There really was no such thing as karma in the world if bitches like Jade Lewallen were rewarded for things like blackmail with presidential candidacies.

And then, as if Jade could hear what Ryder was thinking, she turned, and focused her gaze coolly on him before letting it slide disinterestedly onto the girl to his right. "Yeah?" she raised an eyebrow, and Ryder released his breath when he realized that that she had turned because someone had called her name, and not because she could hear what he'd been thinking. .

He looked to the girl at his side interestedly, wondering what she could possibly want with Jade.

"Jade, I heard you're recruiting again after you ousted your old group. Especially since the elections are coming up, and you want to look good for the new school year," the girl leaned forward excitedly, looking as if she were going to bounce out of her seat at any given second.

"You heard right," Jade replied succinctly, as if she couldn't bother to elaborate. She eyed Greta Collins up and down with mild distaste written all over her face, as she took in the girl's acne-ridden face. The smooth and flawless expanse of Jade's facial features only served to reinforce the idea that the two of them were as different as could be.

"Is there some kind of a competition?" another upperclassmen jumped in eagerly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ears. "How do we know if we're the ones? Is there some sort of initiation?" She asked in all seriousness, making Jade Lewallen sound like she were the leader of a cult instead of just a not-so-average girl running around bossing and blackmailing people into submission.

Jade looked at the upperclassmen critically and turned her nose up haughtily at the question, something Ryder thought that a person with no friends was in no position to do. "You'll know," she waved a hand lazily, while her facial expression clearly said that neither of the two girls were eligible at all.

Ryder snorted softly, because he knew exactly how it was to be picked. Jade would simply send Arielle to ask if you wanted to have lunch, and that would be that. There would be no small-talk afterwards, and you would show up, because it was considered an honor to be the tormentor and not the tormented. By the way Jade was going on about it, though, one would think that it was some kind of secret society.

"So, we can always do lunch sometime in the meantime, right?" A fellow junior asked, drumming her fingers against the desk nervously, while eyeing Jade shrewdly for her answer.

To her credit, Jade had her face schooled into one of faint regret by the time anyone could detect the revulsion, and was now managing to look boredly haughty at the same time. "Actually, I didn't want to say this before, but I already made my choice. Sorry," Jade shrugged, not sounding like she was sorry in the least.

"Who?" Rebecca Stanley said, her eyebrows slanted in an almost angry way. As a senior, she obviously felt that she should've had priority in Jade's choice.

"You'll see," Jade turned back to face the front of the classroom, giving a clear indication that she was done with the conversation. Behind her, confused murmurs and noise swelled as people stared confusedly at each other, trying to figure who it could be.

Ryder popped his chair back a few spaces; he really didn't know whether or not he should've been surprised. It was only natural for Jade to bring in a slew of new friends once her old ones had left. But there was still a weird feeling humming somewhere in the back of his mind. Not exactly regret that he no longer had to engage in silly, girly-revenge schemes, but nostalgia nonetheless to think about the fact that a part of his life was over.

Next to him, Greta was nearly throwing an apoplectic fit. "This just doesn't make sense. Wouldn't we have heard about it by now? Is she even telling the truth? Maybe she's too embarrassed to tell us or something," Greta hissed in a conspicuous whisper. Ryder saw Jade smirk when she heard that, even as she played the part of a diligent, note-taking student the entire time. And even though Ryder was no fan of Jade's, a part of him wondered just how stupid Greta had to be to have ever entertained the idea that friendship could blossom forth from Jade's disdainful words.

"It's okay. I'm sure Jade wasn't being serious," another girl whispered comfortingly to a distraught Greta, rubbing her back soothingly.

But apparently Jade had meant every word, and by the time lunchtime hit, Jade was sitting at her table, newly armed with two new lackeys. She cast a disinterested look at her fellow peers, sneering whenever she caught one of their stares or whispers. Her old group in particular raised their eyebrows at what Jade had replaced them with, but she merely ignored them. If they were surprised or mocking with her choice now, it would be her pleasure to turn those looks of shock into terror.

"Dude, can you believe it? Of all people, Lilith Kadanova and Peyton Croft? She's losing her touch. What is this shit? " one of Ryder's defenders jabbed him in the ribs.

"That's who she picks out of all of us?" The cheerleaders at the table one over said in an outraged whisper. Winter Beaumont, Ryder noted, stayed conspicuously silent, focusing down on her salad while sneaking occasional glances at the raven-haired girl who'd supposedly took her place. It had to hurt, Ryder supposed, to know that replacing you had taken all but one period.

"What's going on with this?" Alana, the head cheerleader, demanded at Ryder and waved at Jade's table with a delicate hand. Ryder's previous association with Jade seemed to have made him a target for gossiping girls.

"I have no idea," Ryder answered truthfully. In reality, he really had no clue what Jade had been thinking. Peyton Croft and Lilith Kadanova had hated each other ever since Peyton had made fun of Lilith for getting her period all over her pristinely white pants in the middle of Biology during freshmen year. If anything, the two were bound to chew each other's heads off.

They say there's a thin line between love and hate.

"I'm sure this will all make sense sometime in the future," Winter spoke up quietly in a soft tone, shocking everyone when she didn't start bashing Jade like all the others. "We'll just have to wait it out and see."

And just like that, the new regime had begun.

**Author's Note: So, I know I said that I would update on the 21****st**** and on the eleventh of October, but my computer was taken away by my parents and my file got erased. So, basically, I had to start the new chapters over by scratch. It's a little late, and it's short, but here you guys go. I'm not happy with it, but it's needed to set stage. I know things have been moving slowly, but I hope to speed things up later. And now that my SATs are (hopefully!) done, I'll be able to update every 1-2 weeks. So please be the awesome readers I know you guys are, and leave me a review to get me through until I get my SAT score reports back. Thanks! **

**P.S. I will reply to the reviews for last chapter around eleven tonight. I haven't forgotten you guys. ******


	4. Chapter 4

Pain is Beauty

The sound of greasy, fried potatoes sizzling away in the cafeteria kitchen was overwhelmingly disgusting, and it was all over the cafeteria. It assaulted Jade's senses, and she delicately pinched the bridge of her nose so that she wouldn't throw up from the mere smell of it. Next to Jade, Lilith Kadanova stretched a tentative hand toward the potatoes like they were calling to her, and Jade immediately worked to remedy the situation.

"Those probably have enough fat in them to feed a small country," Jade said in a disdainful tone. "Personally, I find the salad bar much more refined and healthy, don't you?"

She fixed Lilith with a twisted smile, and Lilith immediately snatched her hand back. "That makes sense, I guess," Lilith murmured softly in a sort of motion to appease her new leader, and reached for the salad bar like it was paining her to do so.

Jade smiled at Lilith's obedience. It was always the same with the Lilith types. They'd been loners for so long that all they wanted was to do anything to please you, so that they wouldn't have to go back to their solitary existence. Winter Beaumont had been a Lilith Kadanova type, too, and look how easy it had been to train her. Although, Jade risked a glance at the cheerleader table, where Winter had apparently taken up as her new residence, there _had_ been something that'd undeniably gone wrong with that one.

"Come on. Let's go," Jade said, tearing her eyes away from her ex-friend and swiping a tiny bottle of pure, unadulterated Naked Mango Madness juice from the ice bucket. She strutted her way down the line of tables, feeling everybody's curious and judgmental looks. A few people snickered when they saw that Jade had picked Lilith Kadanova and Peyton Croft of all people, and Jade ignored each and every one of them. So what if Lilith Kadanova needed to pluck her eyebrows and Peyton Croft looked as if she were constipated in Lilith's presence? She was Jade fucking Lewallen, and she could work miracles like no other. She'd have the two in shape in no time.

"Sit," Jade beckoned in front of her so that Lilith and Peyton were both facing her. She looked at them, carefully reigning in her obvious distaste. Peyton Croft, former substitute cheerleader—which was really just a nice way of saying second rate--, seemed to be in better condition, since she had probably been the one who'd grown up being able to tell Ferragamo from Fendi. Which wasn't to say that she was perfect because there were definitely a lot of thing that needed to be improved upon.

"Peyton, what exactly is your natural hair color?" Jade asked crisply, noting how the obvious dye job that Peyton had put herself through to look like a clone of Alana made her look like a posing, kiss-ass.

"Light brown," Peyton answered Jade's question and picked a strand up to examine critically. Jade shuddered at her answer. With her pasty colored face, light brown would completely wash out the rest of her features. And if that was what light brown could do, Jade didn't even want to think about how Peyton had ever thought blond would be a good look for herself. Asians, Jade decided, or even half-Asians in Peyton's case, should never, _ever_ go blonde.

"And Lilith…" Jade turned her attention abruptly to the other girl, and her voice trailed off slowly, as she took in poor Lilith, who looked as if she couldn't recognize a hairbrush, even if it was being paraded in front of her. "We could improve upon some things."

Jade pursed her lips to keep in the word vomit. Lilith more than needed to just be improved on.

Goodness, she was incredibly ugly. Her face was splotchy red in the most random places, and she was wearing an incredibly dorky pair of big, horn-rimmed glasses that looked as if they'd been handed down from the 70's. Not only that, her skin condition was terribly flaky and dry, and her lips were split and chapped. The white, corn-blond hair was both poofy and dirty, and held no shape whatsoever. And when Jade took in terrible choices in clothing, she just about absolutely lost it. Lilith Kadanova looked like Project Makeover's dream come true in life-form.

Well. No wonder people had been laughing.

Jade made a prompt decision that this could not go on for another day. After school, she was going to show Peyton how to properly look into a mirror, and Lilith how to properly wash her hair. It was terribly gauche and unfitting for Jade Lewallen to be seen walking around the school with those two standing next to her. If she truly wanted to make Arielle and everyone else pay, she would have to make sure that Lidia and Peyton at least looked the part of the upper social class.

"Hm. Well, I would love it if the three of us could reconvene at my house after school," Jade offered sweetly, in an effort to remedy the situation as soon as possible. Lilith and Peyton were both going to thank her on their knees once she was done with them. "We could work on public image. One of the most important things."

"Yeah, especially for you, Lilith," one of the more obnoxious, I'm-holier-than-thou football player snickered as he walked by Jade's table and heard her last comment. He rammed his hip into Lilith on purpose, startling her into knocking the fork out of her hand so that it clattered to the floor. "So sorry about that," he laughed, and ran back to his table, the cafeteria volume rising with the laughing approval of all his football teammates and a smug Peyton.

Jade retained her mask of indifference and took everything in stride, knowing that soon enough, people would be kissing Lilith's derriere soon enough.

Lilith herself flushed a deep, unflattering red, and looked to Jade expectantly. She'd probably expected that being a part of Jade's group now, the teasing would stop and move on to someone else. Jade scoffed on the inside. Common sense pretty much made it clear that there would never be an immunity to being teased when it looked as if you hadn't washed your hair for two weeks. How Lilith could've missed that was beyond Jade.

Jade finally noticed her continued, pleading look, and sat up a little straighter. "Well, that was humiliating, the way you didn't say anything. I hope you weren't waiting for me to defend you," She told Lidia in a quiet, lofty voice so that only the three of them could hear her.

"No," Lilith said dejectedly and looked down at her meal, choosing to finish the rest of her tasteless salad with a spoon rather than lower herself by picking the fork up from the ground.

Jade raised her eyebrows at the blatant lie. "Has anyone ever told you that pluck you eyebrows better than you lie? Because you do, and that's already saying something."

Lilith cringed ashen grey. Jade knew she was coming off too strong, but she felt a need to unleash some badly needed criticism onto someone else's head. And Lilith Kadanova looked just about right for the job.

"Besides, I shouldn't have to defend either one of you. It's up to you to become a part of this group. Which means that from now on, your past is over. I'm giving both of you a clean page to start on. I don't care if the two of you had that stupid freshmen year thing that no one really remembers or gives a fuck about. From now on, both of you shouldn't have to take anything from anyone outside of this circle. If you can't do that, then don't waste my time and leave." Jade looked both of them in the eye to convey her seriousness while pointing her tiny index finger in the general direction of the cafeteria doors.

The two spared a look at each other and immediately shook their heads. Looking at them, Jade was suddenly reminded of why she had chose the two of them. She'd picked Peyton Croft because she knew the girl had hated always being overshadowed by her prettier, skinnier fellow cheerleaders. As for Lilith Kadanova, she'd been stepped on so many times in high school, it would be natural for her to jump on a chance to avenge herself. Besides, given her and Peyton's little feud, it would be natural for the two of them to work harder in order to come out on top over the other.

Friendly competition and all that.

"So, full cooperation from now on?" Jade asked, raising both eyebrows tastefully.

She watched as the two of them nodded their heads dutifully. "Good." Jade stated, and relaxed her rigorous stance. "Now, everyone knows that I have very high standards, standards that neither of you are meeting right now." Jade paused to give a pointed look at the raggedy nail beds and dye jobs in front of her so that the two of them would have no problem interpreting her words and continued. "The three of us should meet after school, so that we can remedy this situation as soon as possible."

"I have cheerleading practice after school," Peyton volunteered, going so far as to raise her hand like she was in the classroom.

Jade stared her down. This girl could not seriously think that she could just turn down Jade's offer in favor of sitting on the sidelines, where she would inevitably self-hate for two hours because she knew that she was never going to be tossed in the air like those other, anorexic pom-pom waving freaks.

"And?" she finally said because every other word in the English dictionary had just failed her as she contemplated Peyton's boundless stupidity. And staring into Jade's poker face, Peyton slowly put her hand back down.

"I guess I could always skip it," Peyton amended quickly, averting her burning face. Beside her, Lilith smirked, basking in the thought that Peyton was being targeted for once.

Ignoring Lilith, Jade informed Peyton indifferently, "That would be a good idea." And Jade allowed Peyton's temporary error to pass.

A silence fell over the table as Jade inspected the herculean task that life had just handed her. She saw Peyton pick at her hair and Lidia chew on her rag-tag fingernails. Lilith's action brought back memories of Arielle, who was a compulsive nail-chewer, and Jade quickly blocked her mind so that the sudden nausea couldn't wander any further.

Jade had never had to train two amateurs single-handedly. Usually, she and Arielle would dually take on one person at a time, with Jade blurting out every single mean thought that came to mind and Arielle secretly trying to soothe it over and make it better when she thought Jade wasn't listening. As it was, Jade was really going to have to do everything along this time.

And with the elections announced today, it was all she could do to speed up the process. Jade refused to lose in her final year at school, simply because her loyal-less friends had chosen the worst time possible to desert her, leaving her high and dry.

"Three-thirty. Don't be late," Jade tossed to the two of them, as the bell rang, and she stood up smoothly. God help them both if either didn't make it because of cheerleading practice or whatever. It would truly mean she was losing her touch, then.

Luckily for her, the two of them were ready beside her locker when she got out of class, and they were able to make it over to Lewallen Estate in record time by breaking just about every traffic law in the book, while Jade effectively silenced all conversation on the way there in favor of following her therapist's advice and harnessing her fucking chi, or whatever. She certainly needed to calm down at the moment, and if the chi didn't work, she could always take it out on Dr. Poe if need be.

Jade breathed a sigh of relief upon walking into her foyer and realizing that all the people she'd hurriedly called and pulled favors to get after lunch were exactly where they were supposed to be, and before Arielle and Blake had came home too. Major bonus.

"Perfect. We're moving this to the Dance Studio, because it's the only house with all the mirrors," Jade announced authoritatively, suddenly grateful that Arielle didn't have private ballet tutorials on Mondays. Then again, if her sister walked in on Jade renovating Lidia and Peyton, maybe she'd realize what she was throwing away by spending time with Blake instead of kissing Jade's ass back into her sister's favor.

Jade led the way to Arielle's Dance Studio, because it happened to be one of her favorite places in the house. Even though dancing was the only thing Arielle had over her, she loved the studio for its smooth, wide expanse of the floor, it's amazing sound system, the neat line of cubby-holes lined against the back wall for all of Arielle's different types of shoes for each movement of dance, and the mirrors and ballet bars that lined up with each other against the wall. Every day, the floors were polished, and the mirrors wiped to perfection. As a puff of air conditioning cooled Jade down from the Californian summer sun, she realized that it would've been quite stupid of her not to utilize some of her best resources.

"Peyton," Jade said, as she pushed the cheerleader into the first swindle chair. "The hair has got to go. I don't care if blondes allegedly have more fun." Here, Jade tossed her own dark brown locks back haughtily while mentally sniffing at the reminder of her twin sister's golden ones, "Looking at you is starting to scare me."

Peyton frowned at Jade's undisguised insult. Jade saw it, and did what she did best: ignored it.

"Not only that, but your eyebrows are plucked unevenly, your nails are heinously scraggly, and your makeup is terrible."

Jade scribbled down all her notes on a piece of pad paper, while making notes about how Peyton was supposed to be approved upon. She glanced up temporarily to appraise Peyton's outfit. "Definitely dark makeup to contrast against her pale skin, and bold colors for clothes," she informed the woman who was supposedly overseeing Peyton's operations.

She looked back at Peyton herself, who was wearing a look of wide disbelief. Jade sneered to herself. Peyton should've expected just as much. She really didn't know why the former cheerleader was so surprised.

"They'll bill you later," Jade informed Peyton, and she glanced up warily, stunned expression and all.

"Is all this really necessary?" Peyton gestured around the room, where Jade's top notch specialists were assembling themselves. She grasped a bleached blonde strand of hair and looked down at it, frowning intensely.

Jade heard Peyton, and snatched up an issue of Vogue from the magazine stack the hair stylists had brought with them. She quickly rifled through the pages with alarming speed, finally stopping at an ad for Dior, featuring an impossibly stunning model on the page who was lying in endless amounts of black silk while holding a perfume bottle. Jade shoved it into Peyton's hands so that both she and Lilith could look at it.

"Do you guys see the difference between the Dior model and this?" Jade asked, handing the two a tiny oval mirror that would undoubtedly reflect all of their physical shortcomings.

They both nodded solemnly, and handed back both items to Jade, who towered over the two of them menacingly. "Exactly. She gets hired for a reason. Nobody is ever going to take you guys seriously if you're threatening them with rampant eyebrows and a ruined cuticles. Do I even need to clarify beyond that?"

Jade watched with satisfaction as both of them immediately bobbed their heads up and down furiously, like the obedient lackeys they were supposed to be.

"Good." Jade said, and moved in front of Lilith, tilting the girl's chin and reminding herself to sanitize her hand from the contact. "Now Lilith."

Jade paused so that she could see where to begin. "The nerdy, horn-rimmed glasses need to go. There are such things called contacts. Use them. Your hair looks like it could use a good shower and haircut. I highly recommend anything from Frederic Fekkai to combat your problems. The flaky skin will be fixed as soon as possible. And then not only am I going to introduce true fashion to you, I am also going to show you how to make those non-existent lips go away."

Lilith touched her own lip self-consciously, mortified.

"I hope you got all that," Jade called behind her shoulder, as someone scribbled furiously, taking down all Jade's notes. It was too much for Jade to do it herself, the way she'd done with Peyton.

"Got it, Ms. Lewallen," the person affirmed, and Jade nodded satisfactorily as a group of stylists converged upon the two girls. Jade settled herself snugly into a rolling chair, so that she could better monitor the progress.

"A shade darker than that," Jade told the stylist who was in charge of dyeing Peyton's hair. "Any lighter and she'll look nonexistent."

The stylist nodded before picking up another bottle that would make Peyton's hair into a pretty, chestnut color. Another manicurist worked furiously to get rid of Peyton's oil-black colored nails in order to replace them with nice, square French nail replacements. "Kat Von D's Lolita lipstick and Love Metal liquid eyeliner should take care of her pasty problem." Jade called one last note out to Peyton's crew.

Now, she swiveled in her chair lazily to take pity on the poor workers who were in charge of Lilith's numerous imperfections. "I hope something's being done about that flaky skin." Jade told them, even though she supposed that she should've been grateful that it hadn't been acne-ridden. Those took much longer to cure, and with the election coming up, she needed Lilith to live up to her full potential.

"Apply facial lotion after showers, and exfoliate weekly with lukewarm water. Then, use Kinerase Lip Treatment for your lips to take care of your chapped condition," one woman was telling a wide-eyed Lilith, who probably didn't even know what exfoliate meant.

"Your hair has no style," another woman said, yanking Lilith's head back so that it could bath in the water. "We're giving it a cut. Up to her ears would certainly be a nice change."

"No! It took me forever to grow it out," Lilith said in a panicked voice, reaching a hand up to grab it before her manicurist yanked it back down.

"Just layer it and give it shape," Jade said, knowing that she didn't need a mutiny on the first day. Although, Lilith's shriek of pain when the removal strips were ripped from her eyebrows made it hard to be certain.

"My eyebrows," Lilith said, horrified, trying to sit up so that she could see how they looked. _Finally look fit to be seen by humans_, Jade tacked on silently.

Jade stood up from her chair and came around to stare down at Lilith's face, looking at the newly transformed eyebrows. "Much better," she nodded in satisfaction.

"Go natural with this. Some earth tone shades will go far," Jade leaned in conspiratorially to the head of Lilith's makeover, "And please introduce the concept of conditioner to this one."

"Maybe even light blue contacts?" her companion suggested, and Jade voiced her approval. Both Peyton and Lilith could be considered fairly pretty if they lived up to their potential. Peyton was half-Asian, half-white, and Lilith was Russian. Once they were tidied up, they would certainly go far.

"What is this?" a different voice said in outrage, and Jade turned her head to find her sister staring angrily at her ballet studio, which had been transformed into a beauty salon. Arielle was decked out in full ballet gear, pink tights and all, with her custom-made black pointe shoes dangling in her left hand.

"What are you doing here?" Jade asked nastily, even though it was quite obvious, and stood up, walking to the doorway so that she was face to face with her twin. "Shouldn't you be slumming it with Blake van Buren in his room and talking about what an evil bitch I am?"

"Actually, I came here because I needed to use my dance studio, which has obviously been taken over by the next generation of Jade-clones," Arielle snarled, not even knowing where her sudden audacity had come from. In the past, it would've been more like her to take whatever Jade said sitting down. The effect of being around Blake too much were obviously kicking in.

"Sorry," Jade said in a mock-simper. "But as you can see, we're using it, and I'm not going to be done for a long time. Now, why don't you run along, and go back to fucking our soon to be step-brother. Goodness knows he wouldn't get some any other way."

"Just because you acted like a slut and then chickened out, doesn't mean I'm going around screwing him." Arielle hissed angrily, because even though Jade had left Blake high and dry the other night, she couldn't bear to see her sister acting so high and mighty. Besides, it had always been a sore spot with Arielle that Jade had laughed at Arielle's decision to wait until sex after marriage, something she was clearly mocking now.

"My, my," Jade said silkily. "I chickened out? Has anyone told him that the proper word for that is rejection?"

"Mighty words coming from a not-so-mighty girl," Blake drawled, coming up from behind Arielle, car keys half-stuffed in his jeans pocket. "I would've thought you'd have just let things go, but apparently your sort doesn't give up easily." He smiled teasingly at her, and Jade was momentarily confused. The last time she'd seen Blake, he'd been glaring menacingly at her. To have him smile now felt like she was being thrown for a complete one eighty.

"What do you want?" Jade snapped, annoyed at his very presence.

"You," he told her quite seriously, and her eyebrows nearly popped up in surprise.

"That," Jade informed him, "is just about the most cliché phrase you could've thought of. I would say that I'm disappointed, but then again, I've long accepted that I'm not going to get anything great from the likes of you."

"Actually," Blake cleared his throat in amusement and barely suppressed derision, "I meant that I wanted you to see if we could have a talk."

Jade would've been embarrassed at her wrongful assumption and accusation, if she hadn't been too busy looking across the dace studio to see the effect of Lilith's hair cut in progress. "Then you need to work on both your clarity and timing. I'm actually quite busy at the moment." And saying so, Jade turned her back on Blake, so she could survey the workplace more fully.

Behind her, Blake cleared his throat. "Actually, you might need to know about this. It's rather important."

Jade looked at him suspiciously. Since when did Blake ever need to tell her something important, besides how much he thought she was a spoiled brat?

"Maybe it's better if I show you," Blake suggested, taking in Jade's disbelieving gaze. "I would hate for you to miss this."

And even though he smiled in that sweet and innocent way, there was an ominous feeling in his last words.

"Just spit it out," Jade sighed, figuring that she could do better than Blake's shitty imagination, even on one of her worst days.

"I accidentally totaled your car," Blake said, wasting no time with pleasantries, the corners of his mouth turning up. When he caught her looking, he let his hands deviate to the side. "Sorry," he shrugged, but Jade was too shocked to say anything.

She quickly strode out of the room in large steps and over to the nearest window that was facing the driveway. There was no way. Her beautiful, red, one-of-a-kind car that she'd got for her sixteenth birthday last year. Blake had to be lying. It seemed like the kind of practical joke that he'd enjoy playing on her. He had to be lying, he just had to---.

She was going to murder that shitty little motherfucker if it was the last thing she did.

"You did this on purpose," Jade growled, her temper and blood pressure boiling over to an all-time high as she took in the massive dent on the passenger side. The paint had chipped away in large flakes, and she'd be lucky if she could even get it to operate for school tomorrow. Jade almost felt an unfamiliar prickling behind her eyes, as she thought of all the times the car had faithfully served her.

And Blake, who had the gall to be leaning casually against the window frame while looking down at the damage with a fond look in his eyes, just shrugged in the face of Jade's statement, neither denying nor confirming what she said.

Seeing him look so infuriatingly calm bother angered her more and cooled her temperament. "I expect all damages to be charged to your account," she told him in an attempted pleasant tone.

Blake wagged a disapproving finger. "But we're family now, Jade, which means that what's yours is mine. We really shouldn't be arguing over things like this."

Hearing him talk about the destruction of her greatest possession—destruction for which he was solely responsible for!-- so casually made Jade fly off the handle all over again, and she seized the front of his shirt viciously, balling it into her surprisingly strong hands so that she could yank his tall frame down to face level.

"Listen to me now, and listen closely, you bastard. I'll pay for it with my own money because I need that car for next week and because I hardly doubt that even selling your sister into prostitution could fetch the amount I need. But make no mistake; you are going to pay off your debt in every single painful way I choose, or else I am going to go to my father, and I am going to ruin your mother and your sister until they can't even raise their heads anymore. And don't for a second even think that you can get away with this again. Are we clear?" Jade said in a low and menacing voice, leaning in so close, their faces were almost touching the other's.

"I'll pay for it," Blake said, all seriousness gone. He yanked her fists away from his shirt and clenched them in his hands, even though their proximity didn't change. "But just try and hurt my sister, and I'll have you begging for her forgiveness."

"Is that a threat?" Jade snarled, pulling her hands back from Blake, and he automatically straightened up to his proper height. "Because it may work on others, but I can tell you now I'll never beg for anything from a van Buren."

"We'll see about that." Blake said quietly, stepping back.

"Don't hold your breath. Better start selling all that pot you probably have stashed away in your bag. You're going too need every single cent you can get," Jade informed him coldly before pulling her cell phone out of her pocket to remedy the day's damage, feeling as if the only thing she did anymore nowadays was fixing broken things.

**Author's Note: It's been a while, and I'll hopefully make it up by updating five chapters or so during Winter Holiday Break. As for now, before December 5****th****, no more updates because I have my SAT Subject Test to study for. A few things first though. First, I know that this chapter had a lot of superficial stuff and brand name references. As someone who can't afford designer, I try not to overuse it, and I think this is the only chapter where I go overboard a bit. Hopefully, this is the worst of it. Second, the idea of turning someone socially ugly into someone gorgeous is a very cliché idea, and I was inspired by Scott Westerfield's Uglies Series, where everybody turns pretty, but loses their individuality. In no way whatsoever, am I trying to condone Lilith, Peyton, and Jade's behavior. Finally, GoodBadAndEverythinInBetween** **has asked for pictures of Peyton and Lilith, and I have chosen to put pictures of them AFTER the transformation. They should be on profile page, unless isn't working for me. **

**Please read and review. Any type of constructive feedback always welcome. **


	5. Chapter 5

Out with the Old and In with the New!

"Unbelievable," Arielle muttered to Blake, the sides of her bright eyes narrowing dangerously as she stared down the hallway, where Jade was currently holding court with her new friends in the middle of all the student traffic. A few of the students stared at the trio as they rushed by, but Jade sent all of them running with a single, scathing look. It seemed as if everyone wanted to see Jade's new lackeys.

Two freshly primped, pore-less skinned, utterly transformed lackeys, who looked nothing like what they were before.

Like she'd said earlier. Unbelievable.

Peyton was still half-identifiable as the former cheerleader, but Lilith was completely unrecognizable. Arielle looked at the girl's blonde, silky hair and sea-green eyes that were framed in a brand of mascara that made them pop, and felt absolutely sick to her stomach. Jade had easily replaced Arielle with this new blonde, and by the looks of it, she'd traded up.

"Well. They do clean up nicely," Blake remarked appreciatively next to Arielle, binder held loosely in the crook of his left arm, eyes staring with something akin to interest at the two girls right down the hallway.

"Yeah, very nicely," Arielle swallowed uncomfortably, aware of something the size of a Harry Winston diamond lodged in the hollow of her throat. If she were any other girl, she would've started picking apart every single flaw, but Arielle was not a mean person. So she stayed silent, even though she noticed that Peyton's hair had little knots at the bottom and that Lilith's skin was still the tiniest bit flaky near the forehead.

Blake looked down at Arielle, who was looking at her twin miserably. "Nowhere as nice as my favorite blonde, of course," Blake amended in consideration of his friend, tweaking a curl from Arielle's shoulder and earning himself a grateful smile.

"Thanks, but you don't have to," Arielle said ruefully. "It's just weird, seeing her with people I don't know."

"If it makes you feel better, I'm sure she's just using them because she wants to win the upcoming student elections." Blake told her sympathetically. Or as sympathetic as someone like him could be, anyway.

"Yeah, using them like the way she used me," Arielle said bitterly, remembering all the hours in the past years that she'd spent helping Jade out of a sense of sisterly duty, something that she hadn't realized was completely unreciprocated until a few weeks ago. "Do you know how much time it takes to ice the words "Vote Jade Lewallen" onto some hundreds of cookies? Or how hard it is to wake up at six in the morning to try to convince the local radio station to air her voice? I even ran to Walmart in the middle of the night because we ran out of glitter and glue for the campaign posters. You'd think she'd at least have the decency to remember _some_ of the things I did for her. "

Blake gave a low whistle, "Sounds like you might as well have been campaigning for yourself, with all the work you put forth."

Arielle stared at him for a prolonged minute, as something started to shape itself in her mind. He was right. She'd done just about all the manual labor, and she must've done something right if it'd managed to help get Jade elected for three years in the running. What if, she were to campaign for herself just this once, and not for her sister? She certainly knew enough about all the steps and procedures.

"You know what? Maybe I will." Arielle replied, biting her bottom lip thoughtfully.

Blake snickered at her concentrated expression and drank some of his water, "I was just kidding. But by all means, go for it. I'd support you, and it'd give me a few laughs to see Jade's face." He laughed and took another swig of the expensive bottled water that he'd swiped off the kitchen counter this morning, the one with Jade Lewallen's name imprinted carefully on the cap by the Lewallens' housekeeper. It'd serve her right if Jade Lewallen died from dehydration during the middle of class, anyway.

"Blake, you should run with me," Arielle looked at him in all seriousness. "You'd make a good co-president."

For a second, he didn't process what she said, still caught up in his imagination. Then, as the words sank in, Blake choked on his water, and felt his eyes water from the impact.

"Wait a minute here," he said, furiously swiping the back of his hand over his wet mouth, "Let's not get carried away with this, Arielle. It's one thing for you to run, and another thing altogether for us to run."

Arielle thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "I don't see the difference. Besides, as a team of two, we could get even more votes."

"Arielle," Blake enunciated her name slowly, because there was no way she was in her right mind at the moment. "I hate to break it to you, but I am not Associated Student Body President material. I sleep in class. I trash all my homework without looking at it. I bullshit every single test and quiz I'm given. I hardly think all that makes me a good representative of the school."

"But all the girls would vote for you," Arielle pleaded, in an attempt to appeal to his masculine ego.

Blake scoffed when he heard that.

"Only because they all think they can _change_ me and make me a better person. They want to _save_ my poor, broken soul from the darkness I suffered from during my supposedly abused childhood," Blake sneered. He'd heard what some people had been saying, about him being the classic bad boy type. But no one was going to reform him. Blake van Buren was going to do as he damn well pleased, regardless of whatever and whoever life sent his way.

"Blake—" Arielle started, no doubt in pursuit of some other argument, but Blake cut her off. It was funny at first, but it was getting irritating pretty fast.

"No," he narrowed his eyes at her resolutely, and Arielle closed her mouth immediately, knowing that she had reached an invisible boundary that could not be pushed any further.

Fortunately, Ryder saved the two of them from the building tension as he came up behind them, wheeling Chase in front of him. "Hey," he smiled at Arielle, ignoring Blake. "I just got out of the hospital. Had to get checked out and everything."

From her wheelchair, Chase beamed at her surroundings. Her wide eyes took in everything around her, as if she were drinking everything in. "I'm so glad to be here and away from that place. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I've actually missed school."

"Missed school," Blake grumbled in a mocking tone, but he had a hard time hiding his affection for his sister. "You're crazy. I'd gladly take being in the hospital, with all the pretty nurses at my every beck and call."

"Pretty nurses do nothing for me. It's nice to get the fresh air," Chase laughed as her uninjured fingers from her left arm fluttered happily. "I didn't think Jade was serious, but she managed to bust me out, just like she promised."

At the mention of the name, everybody's enthusiasm dropped visibly, though Chase was too caught up in the excitement of being back in school to notice it.

"Chase!" Jade called out at the exact moment, waving at her future step-sister. "It's so nice to see you out of that hospital." And then, as if tugging on a leash, the three of them sauntered forward in a sort of synchronization.

"Speak of the fucking devil," Blake muttered under his breath, as Jade led the trio closer.

"Hi," Chase said when the other three others stayed conspicuously silent.

"Chase. You're looking much better, so I thought I'd introduce everyone to you," Jade nodded and ignored the others just as surely as they were ignoring her. It didn't matter. Everyone except Chase knew that Jade's real purpose was to flaunt her newly improved clones in front of them rather than acquaint them with Chase.

"This is Peyton." Jade indicated towards a pretty, half-Japanese, half-Caucasian girl who had an almost impermeable, haughty air around her. "And Lilith." She gestured at the Russian blonde next to her, who gave a nervous twitch of her lips in acknowledgement.

Chase meekly waved her left hand at the two of them.

"Anyways, I also came over here because I wanted to give you this," Jade said, pulling out a creamy envelope from the depths of her turquoise Hermes bag and handing it to Chase. "It's a party I'm hosting at Gwendolyn Fairgrounds for my campaign."

She threw disdainful looks at the other three before continuing. "Security's pretty tight this year. Anybody who tries to get in without an invitation will be arrested until I can clear them, so make sure you don't lose the invitation or try to sneak anyone in."

"Like anyone would want to go to your fucking party," Blake said icily.

Jade looked as if she couldn't wait to tear into him, but she managed to bite her tongue at the last second. She stared past him, as if he didn't exist, and spoke directly to Chase. " Please R.S.V.P. as soon as you can. Until then, remember to vote Jade Lewallen."

She threw one last contemptuous look at Blake, before indicating to Peyton and Lilith to leave.

"A party to get people to vote for her? Isn't she going overboard with this?" Chase asked disbelievingly once Jade had disappeared around a corner, as she tried to open the envelope's slit with her good left hand. Ryder picked it up, tore it open, and handed it back to her neatly.

"She's set on winning," Arielle spoke up, with her jaw stonily set in place. "This is just the sort of thing she'd do."

Blake snatched the creamy invitation from Chase's hand amid her protests. "I don't believe it. She's hosting a Circus themed party. As if we were all fucking five-year-olds." He threw the invitation back into Chase's lap, making a noise representative of disgust. "I can't wait to see how this turns out."

"You won't be able to," Arielle reminded him. "She'll have the guest list ready, complete with photo identification and driver's license number. She's never done something like this before, which can only mean that everything is being done to purposely keep us out."

Blake shrugged when he heard that. "Jade may be smart, but she's not smart enough. She should know by now that I can get in anywhere I want."

"Except her pants," Ryder muttered, having overheard Arielle and Blake talking about it one day while they were visiting Chase in the hospital. He couldn't help it. The opportunity to avenge himself against weeks of Blake's hostile distaste was too good to pass up.

Blake's face instantly turned stormy at Ryder's words, and the two of them locked their jaws against each other in something that went much deeper than mutual dislike.

"You're right. I haven't gotten in her pants. Yet. But when I do, I'll make sure to let you know about it," Blake said coldly, finally breaking the silence.

With that, he turned away, sauntering down the hall in anger. What had happened that night was a sore spot for both his memory and masculinity. It was the only time he'd ever let Jade Lewallen best him, and he vowed to make it the last.

When he found evidence that Jade had tried to get Chase killed, he'd be the first to testify against her for attempted murder. Then, when she was tucked away in Juvenile Hall, he could visit her and remind her of the time she'd _thought_ she could get the better of him by tricking him.

That is, after they'd fucked each other senseless, of course. He didn't intend on living for the rest of his life hearing Ryder Ferreira's taunting voice in his head.

Blake looked back behind him through the side of his eyes. Ryder was a sore spot in Blake's side. Worse, he'd managed to deceive Chase into thinking he was God's gift to her. Even now, she was smiling at him in that sickening way that every older brother hopes he never has to see as Ryder pushed her wheelchair along and cleared the hallway for her like Moses parting the Red Sea.

Blake shook his head. This place was starting to get to both of them.

And then, as if it couldn't get any worse:

"Good Morning Beverly Champion High. If all students would please report to the Proscenium Theatre instead of their first period, so that we may begin the nominations for this year's Associated Student Body elections," the voice over the PA system said.

With a groan, Blake turned around and followed Arielle to the school's Proscenium Theatre all the way to the outer-most right field of the school.

"Are you still running?" Blake asked Arielle seriously, because she looked as if she were having serious doubts after Jade's hand-delivered invitation. If it were him, he would've been a little disconcerted too.

She flicked a glance at her friend and nodded quickly. "Yeah. It's worth a try and I know some people who'd stop to consider voting for someone different."

Blake shrugged, but was not surprised at her response. In a way, he could understand Arielle's need to do this, to prove to her sister once and for all that she could be better. After all these years, maybe Arielle was just desperate for an accomplishment that didn't have her twin's name written all over it.

When they got to the theatre, it was packed with students from all four grade levels. The freshmen were clumped together in little groups. The sophomores were looking at the freshmen condescendingly nearby, even though they weren't much better. And most of the upperclassmen grade levels were gathered around Jade and her new group.

"Blake?" Arielle piped up in that tiny voice of hers amid all the hustle and bustle. "I just thought of something. Will you nominate me? I thought I could get Ryder and Chase, but I don't want to put your sister in an uncomfortable place, since she already has the invitation and everything, and I don't want Jade targeting her next."

"Yeah, I'll nominate you," Blake said vaguely, staring over at where Jade was congregated with her admirers. It was a sad world indeed if nice girls like Arielle had to ask him to nominate her while bitches like Jade Lewallen had scores of people worshipping her very feet.

And the sad thing was, he didn't think Arielle was going to stand a chance. Whether through fear or persuasion, Jade was obviously the more popular choice, the brain of the former duo, the one who held all the favors.

Poor Arielle. But he wasn't going to tell her that.

It looked as if she knew too, as her facial expression became paler and paler, as Principal Cracow blew through nominations for the other more minor positions. By the time, she called out for nominations for the student presidency, Arielle was fidgeting nervously in her seat beside Blake, looking like she was about to hurl.

"For the Associated Student Body Position for President: anyone?" Principal Cracow called out over the microphone.

Blake watched as Jade stood up confidently and flounced onto the stage, amid the cheers of her devotees.

"Hello, I'm Jade Lewallen, current ASB President," Jade said into the microphone sweetly once she was on stage, and Blake snorted. "Over the last few years that I've been President, I've made this school better to the best of my abilities. I organized all of our annual fundraisers for the Arts programs, I've planned all the dance parties and I've helped our schools become a better environment for students of all ages and backgrounds. This year, I'm in charge of organizing Prom and other graduation events as a conclusion to my third year of presidency. But in order for me to continue helping you, I need your help first. Help get me elected as next school year's Associated Student Body president, and I promise to help Beverly Champion High be the best it can be. Thank you, and remember to vote Jade Lewallen."

Jade handed the microphone back confidently to Principal Cracow as the theatre exploded into applause. Blake didn't say a word, only leaned back in his chair, utterly disgusted.

"Who is willing to nominate Jade?" Principal called out to the crowd, and about a dozen hands shot up.

Lilith and Peyton both stood up, probably as pre-planned by Jade. "We nominate her," they both called to the principal, and she nodded in assent.

"Anybody else?" Principal Cracow asked, scanning the crowd, and Blake felt Arielle stiffen before standing up nervously. To her credit, she made it to the stage on relatively firm legs, and even managed a classic, charming Arielle smile at the crowd before taking the microphone.

"Hi, my name is Arielle Lewallen, and I would like to be in the running against Jade Lewallen for the presidency of Beverly Champion High's Associated Student Body." Arielle smiled nervously at the crowd.

There was silence for a moment, before hushed whispers broke out. Ignoring them, Arielle plunged on. "For three years now, Jade Lewallen has ran this school, and she has certainly managed to accomplish a lot. Now that you've seen what she can do, I'm asking for you to give me a chance, so that I can show you what I can do, and how dedicated I am willing to be. Vote Arielle Lewallen, and I promise to make this school even better than before."

Principal Cracow took the microphone back from her and called, "Nominations for Arielle Lewallen? Anyone?"

There was a brief pause, and then Ryder raised his hand. "I'm willing to nominate Arielle," he said unabashedly, and smiled up at his friend on stage.

And then, Blake heard it. The delicate little snickers coming from Jade's end in the theatre. He looked over and saw Jade whispering to a small group of people, who simultaneously giggled into their palms. On stage, Arielle must've heard it, because her face went ashen and her fingernails flew to her mouth.

Too late, Blake remembered that he was supposed to be Arielle's second nomination, but at that point, he didn't care. He was so pissed that he could only see red in front of him.

And without knowing what he was doing, not understanding if he was being motivated by Jade's snickers or Arielle's hurt expression, he was standing up and stalking towards the stairs in a cloud of anger. On stage, he pushed the principal out of his way, ignoring her squawk of indignation as she almost stumbled off the stage in her ridiculous black heels, and yanked the microphone out of her hand.

"I hereby nominate myself," he declared hotly into the microphone, all the while keeping his eyes glued hatefully to Jade's. Downstage, her laughter had stopped and she now looked up at him in shock. Then, the news seemed to settle in, and she narrowed her eyes competitively. She wasn't laughing anymore, and neither was anybody else. In fact, the crowd had gotten a little _too _silent.

"Blake van Buren, you can not do that!" declared the principal, who had managed to recover herself and not topple right off of the stage.

"Why not?" he contested and countered, "I'm a student here, aren't I? Therefore, I am due a nomination, and I choose to nominate myself and Arielle. We are running together as a team."

"Principal Cracow," Jade jumped to her feet when she heard this, "this is a blatant disrespect of the rules! Nobody has ever nominated _themselves_. It's ridiculous!"

Blake whirled around so that he could look deep into her blazing, grey eyes. "Shut up and suck it, princess," he snapped, pointing the microphone in her direction threateningly.

"It's not against the rules, is it?" Arielle jumped into the conversation before things became a full-on fight, asking Principal Cracow in that little lilt of a voice. "And if it doesn't work out, we'll have lost the election, so it doesn't matter anyway."

Arielle widened her blue eyes innocently, waiting for the principal's response.

Principal Cracow sighed, taking off her glasses, rubbing her eyes together tiredly. The long silence in between seemed to amplify everything before she finally responded.

"I guess if Blake van Buren still wants to, he may run in the elections with Arielle Lewallen."

Arielle looked up at Blake, biting her bottom lip gently, relief and gratitude in her eyes as the two exited off the stage together in unison. Down below, Jade slowly sat back down, brushing off the concerned questions from her peers. All she could see was the two of them walking together in some sort of secret pact and understanding with each other. It only made her sick and all the more determined to win.

Across the room, Chase watched her brother walk off with Arielle, and turned her head to the side awkwardly.

"Did you know he was going to do that?" Ryder asked as he watched a scrawny boy named Alan Thomas enter as the third party for the presidency.

"No," Chase responded truthfully. She didn't even know what Blake was thinking, but she did know that he had a knack for wreaking havoc. If he had pulled the fire alarm during the nominations, she wouldn't have been surprised. But going out of his way to do so by entering into a school competition just seemed distinctly unlike him. "Do you think he did it for Arielle?"

"Maybe," Ryder nodded, as he turned his neck to check up on the two of them sitting towards the very back. "They do spend a lot of time together these days, and Arielle's definitely got one of the hottest arses I've ever seen. I wouldn't be surprised if your brother's noticed it too."

A weird feeling went through Chase's stomach when he said that as she turned around to see Arielle sitting next to Blake, playing with the palm of his hand absentmindedly. With her dark blonde ringlets, sea-blue eyes, and doll-like features, Arielle was the most beautiful person Chase had ever seen. And without even having to picture it, she knew that Arielle and Ryder would make a devastatingly gorgeous couple.

Tugging at her red hair, Chase wished ruefully that her hair was just a little lighter, her eyes a little bluer, and her figure a little more slender than curvy. Maybe then, the people who stared at the image of her and Ryder together weirdly would stop doing so, and remark to each other that they looked like a cute couple too.

Chase looked at Ryder again as he stood up.

"Come on. Let's get out of here before the hordes of students trample you," Ryder smiled, reaching up to take her wheelchair into hand. Chase smiled too, because he really was the most perfect friend. Confronted with the mob, she became aware that the assembly had ended, and that everyone was trying to get to the back doors.

"Thanks. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this," Chase told him gratefully, as he jostled people out of their way to clear a path for Chase.

"What are you talking about? You're my free pass out of here. Without you, I'd have to push with the rest of them," Ryder said easily as he strolled along leisurely.

A few people over, Chase saw Arielle and Blake and as Ryder waved to them, the weird ping went through her stomach again at the sight of Arielle's pretty, shining face. But it wasn't until after she'd gotten out of the theatre that she'd recognized the feeling for what it was.

Jealousy.

**Author's Note: Well, there you go. This chapter is really the chapter that gets the plot rolling. I should be updating either tomorrow or on Christmas, but no guarantees. Hopefully, I'll have two more updates within next week, before school starts. Until then, happy holidays, and please read and review as a holiday gift to me. As always, flames/constructive criticism helps. **


	6. Chapter 6

The Paintbrush is Indeed Mightier than the Sword

Ryder felt his feet pound along the hard cement ground as he led his team in their warm-up mile run around the field.

"Let's try to finish this under six minutes," he shouted behind him, as the entire team picked up their pace and desperately sprinted towards the finish line.

Up ahead, he could see Chase sitting in her wheelchair, waving the timer in her hand. "Ten seconds," she called, and Ryder used that last burst of energy to push himself over the line.

"Almost didn't make it," she teased, waving the timer in his face as he came up next to her.

He grabbed the timer from her hand and held it in the heart of his palm, cupping his hands around his eyes so that he could read it under the blazing Californian sun.

"Three seconds left to spare," he announced triumphantly, clenching a fist in victory. His team was slowly getting back on track. Back when Chase had still been in the hospital, he'd allowed everybody to slack off and go home early. Now, with the game with Santa Fe Christian fast approaching, everybody was slowly making up for the lost time.

Chase watched the rest of the boys cross the finish line one by one. There was something incredibly refreshing about watching a group of guys run a mile, as they all concentrated on reaching that one goal. But after being cooped up for so long, probably anything that had to do with the outdoors would seem appealing to her. Ryder had offered to take her home before soccer practice, but she had declined. It was much better sitting out in the sidelines, watching the school soccer team drill for their upcoming game this Saturday against Santa Fe Christian Academy Owls.

Back on the field, Chase watched Ryder attempt to squeeze in every bit of advice as he could.

"Pass it to Kline, Johnson! No! What are you doing? Kline's on the left! The _other_ left!" Ryder was shouting from the goal box before promptly burying his face in his hands as his Johnson passed it to someone who was definitely nowhere near his left. Chase had to smile at Ryder's groan. In recent weeks, she'd only ever known him to be patient and calm, that seeing him lose control out on the field was strangely funny to her.

"Hey Chase," she felt someone come up behind her, and she turned her neck quickly in surprise.

"Oh, hey Arielle," she said, when she realized who it was. Arielle came to stand next to Chase, sinking down into the freshly mowed grass.

"So, I wanted to ask you something, but you can feel free to say no if it makes you feel uncomfortable," Arielle explained, twirling a golden curl absentmindedly around her index finger. Chase watched her do it, and had seen enough of it in her short time at Beverly Hills to pick up that twirling her hair and biting her nails were nervous habits of the girl.

Looking at her now, Chase could practically feel the jealousy from Tuesday morning come back to her. The fact that she lived in the same house as Arielle and had yet to experience a moment when her step-sister hadn't looked perfectly put together didn't help things at all. The worst thing was that Arielle was so incredibly sweet that it felt like a crime to harbor any bad feelings towards her. On the other hand, though, it was so hard for Chase not to look in the mirror and instantly compare herself with her graceful, ballerina step-sister. She didn't want to, remembering all the things she'd heard about self-love, but she couldn't help it all the same.

"Sure, Arielle. Ask away," Chase replied easily, trying to separate her jealousy from the genuine affection that she held in regard for the girl on a personality and attitude basis.

"Well, since we're officially running and everything, I would love it if you became sort of a campaign manager for me and your brother." Then, seeing a frown cross Chase's face, she hurriedly tacked on, "It's perfectly okay to say no, though. Don't feel obligated to agree."

In her wheelchair seat, Chase squirmed uncomfortably. She wanted to help Arielle and her brother, but she just couldn't. Jade had personally given her no reason to hate her, and Chase didn't particularly want to get caught up in the war that was currently happening in the Lewallen household.

"I would love to, but I don't want to offend Jade. I could still help you with the little things, but maybe…just not openly declare myself against your sister," Chase bit her lip tightly, watching for a sort of reaction from Arielle, and hoping that she hadn't hurt the blonde's feelings.

"Oh, that's okay," Arielle said quickly, and looked embarrassed more than anything else. "I know it was going to be a big burden for you. I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry."

Now Chase felt like a terrible person, especially as Arielle stared at the grass forlornly. "Do you have any ideas on where you're starting?" Chase asked kindly, because no on could ever be unkind to Arielle for long. With one notable exception, of course.

"Well, I originally thought about doing the same old cupcake handouts and posters around school, but that doesn't seem quite as spectacular as a circus-themed party now that I think about it," Arielle bit her nails absentmindedly in deep thought.

"Well, maybe it will be a really lame circus-themed party," Chase said comfortingly, although something in the back of her mind told her that Jade Lewallen wasn't physically possible of not achieving perfection in her every endeavor.

"No," Arielle shook her head ruefully, confirming Chase's suspicions. "Knowing her, she'll probably have flame eaters and tightrope walkers carrying the sign 'Support Jade Lewallen'."

Arielle gave a short, bitter bark of laughter.

Chase raised her eyebrows, thinking that flame eaters and tight rope walkers may have been a stretch of Arielle's imagination. "I doubt even Jade's that overachieving. That seems to be stretching it a little. It's just not financially and physically possible."

Arielle looked at Chase carefully, not wanting to make the girl feel uncomfortable with the knowledge that if you have the right surname and enough zeros behind a number on a check, anything was possible. "I guess," she finally said quietly, not wanting to continue this topic of conversation.

If Chase noticed anything weird with Arielle, she didn't say anything about it. Instead, she took the mental vibes and moved on. "Well, you could plan a party too, and make it better than hers. Or if you really wanted to play dirty, the girls at my old school used to leak secrets and spread rumors. All in the name of friendly competition, and everything."

Arielle grimaced when she heard that. As Jade's sidekick for her many nefarious schemes, she wasn't unused to being mean, but something about spreading Jade's secrets didn't sit well. Secrets were told in good faith. As nasty as Jade was, Arielle had yet to hear of her own skeletons being spread around school. "Hmm," she murmured noncommittally. "What else did the people at your school do? Jade's always received near unanimous vote because she's popular and scary enough to demolish the competition, so our campaigning strategies here are probably quite different to what you're used to."

Chase paused to think about this for a minute. "Well, you occasionally have the one or two people who do underhand things to win. Sabotage. I don't think that'll appeal to you, though. You're way too nice for that," she mumbled in thought to herself.

Arielle pursed her lips at that. It was true that she probably wouldn't have thought of sabotage if she hadn't been pushed to it. It made her wonder if Jade would, though. She had certainly done it enough in the past, but never at an election. Arielle couldn't help but wonder slightly at what it would be like to be in Jade's shoes and get away with every dirty little deed and not get punished for it.

"If it wasn't my two favorite ladies, gossiping on the sidelines," a boisterous voice came behind them, and they turned around to see Ryder, who had wedged himself in between them with his forearms braced upon his knees.

"Hey Ryder," Arielle said breezily and Ryder gave her a winning smile, good mood restored now that Johnson had finally figured out his left from his right.

On his right, Chase smiled weakly and quickly shut her eyes to block out the fresh surge of jealousy from the green-eyed monster. She was not going to be envious of Arielle and ruin a good, budding friendship with her insecurities. And for her to fully be able to regain herself, she had to get out of here.

Chase opened her eyes and smiled at the two of them before wheeling her wheelchair away as fast as she could.

"Chase, where are you going?" Ryder asked her, coming to stand up so that he could assist her.

"No, it's okay. Just stay where you are. I just need to use the bathroom. I'll be back before you know it," Chase said in a light tone. She saw Ryder waver uncertainly before he slowly sat back down.

Chase emitted a sigh of relief. She really didn't need to use the bathroom as much as she needed that precious few minutes to herself.

Ryder watched her slowly wheel away with a sort of affection. The afternoon sun brought out the golden undertones in her red hair, and it had become quite distracting to him while he was out on the field.

"Do you like her?" Arielle asked suddenly from his left as she watched him watch her.

Ryder popped his back onto the dry grass, placing his folded hands behind his head. "What makes you say that?" he replied casually, knowing that it wasn't really the answer his friend was looking for.

Arielle shrugged. "You're nicer to her than you've ever been to any other girl. So that must mean you feel something, right?"

Ryder closed his eyes as he remembered the one other girl that he'd been nice to, and how she was currently laying six feet under in a cemetery. "We're just friends," came his firm reply.

Arielle smiled wryly before laying on her stomach. "We're friends too, and you didn't offer to carry my books for me when I broke my arm."

"You had your right arm to do the carrying," Ryder said stubbornly, refusing to cave and admit what Arielle was now trying to fish out of him.

"She has her left arm to do the carrying, yet you still lug around her backpack and help her get lunch and drive her home. Sounds pretty chivalrous to me," Arielle smiled mischievously, glad to be playing cupid for once. "Plus," she added on slyly, "I haven't seen you look at any other girl since the accident. That's pretty unusual for your former playboy title."

Ryder threw an arm over his face so that she wouldn't know from his expression that he did do all those things on purpose in hopes that she would one day start to consider him as more than just a friend and not run off when he tried to kiss her. Stopping his dating habits had just seemed natural, so that she wouldn't think that all he ever wanted to do was gather conquest after conquest.

"Give it up, Arielle," he said tiredly. "We're just friends, and that's that."

Arielle pursed her lips unhappily, but wisely dropped the subject, recognizing a dead end when she saw one.

Meanwhile, the topic of their discussion was still wheeling along as slow as ever. To tell the truth, she was completely lost. This was her first time being in the fields, and she had no idea how she was supposed to get back. Up ahead on top of the hill, there was a line of trees. And then for almost as far as she could see, she was surrounded by yards of more grass, with the occasional flower or two.

Spotting a tiny, human speck, she made her way over, left arm turning the wheelchair as fast as it could.

"Excuse me," Chase said, as she neared the stranger. His head was ducked, and his hands were deftly flying off the easel as he seemed to sketch the landscape before him.

When he didn't respond, she tried again. "Can you help me?" she asked quietly, poking him gently on his hard shoulder blades.

He shook his friend frantically, holding up his index finger quickly in a universal sign for her to wait a minute. Chase reclined back in her chair and waited him for him to finish sketching. The picture was of the grassy field before them. She hadn't thought that there had been anything special about it before, but watching his fingers fly over the sketch pad, she could almost feel the grass begin to move.

"You're drawing's lovely," she told him complimentarily when he finally put down his pencil.

He dusted his hands off and seemed to appraise it with a critical eye. "Thanks. I've been trying to sketch random places and people for the national art show, but I still can't seem to find the right thing."

"Well, what kind of thing are you looking for," Chase inched her body a little closer to look at his drawing. It looked good enough to her, but she would've know, having never been a major art critic herself.

"People, places, things," he shrugged. "The usual."

"Well, if you like sketching people, I know a girl who would be perfect," Chase told him, excitement bubbling in her stomach. Maybe this was what she needed to help get over her misplaced envy.

"Really?' his eyebrows raised the barest of an inch. "And who would that be?"

"Arielle Lewallen," Chase said excitedly, and watched as his boyishly handsome face instantly morphed into one of disgust and loathing. Chase frowned, not knowing what could have inspired his expression, but he only gave one word in response and explanation.

"Never," he said shortly, flipping his pad closed and tucking it into his backpack. His tone was suddenly so harsh that Chase didn't even bother bringing up the subject again.

"Sorry," she said, slowly trying to wheel away. His tone and voice were starting to scare her.

"No, please don't leave. I'm sorry," the boy said when he saw her wheeling away. Hetook a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I didn't mean to come off that strongly."

"It's okay," Chase said quietly, not knowing whether or not he was normal yet. Just to be sure, she didn't approach any closer.

"Look, I'm not going to say anything about it except that the Lewallens have done something unforgivable to me," he said in way of explanation. "And it just surprised me that you would bring up one of them."

"What'd they do?" Chase couldn't resist asking. Everybody seemed to either love or hate them. She had yet to find someone who was indifferent to the twins.

He snapped his mouth shut into a tight line, and Chase thought he was going to get angry again. When Chase was about to leave again, he spoke up. "I've been here on scholarship since my freshmen year. My father works as a car mechanic's assistant so that he can send me to art classes. I have a job at the local diner to help pay the taxes and send my little sister to school. My family is not part of Beverly Hills's high society. We don't have a lot of money, and somehow, Jade Lewallen has a big problem with that. She thinks that just because I'm here on scholarship, I don't deserve a chance, and she's done everything possible to make it so that nobody else will give me a chance either. It's why I like drawing so much. It's a silent activity, where you don't have to hear other people make fun of you. It's also why I hate Jade so much."

Chase swallowed the huge lump that had settled in her throat at his words. But as much as he sounded sincere, she had to know one thing. "Shouldn't you hate only Jade, though? Why Arielle? She's so nice."

He smiled bitterly as if he had been anticipating her question. "Arielle," he scoffed in contempt, "is nothing more than an aspiring clone of her sister who can't think for herself. She'll do whatever Jade tells her to do. That makes her equally guilty."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I wouldn't even be here if my mother wasn't marrying Mark. I'm not even half as smart to qualify for a scholarship, so you must be proud of yourself. You have both brains and a talent for art," Chase told him comfortingly.

"Thanks," he smiled softly, causing the tiniest of dimples to appear in his left cheek. "Now, if I could only get the theme right. Winning the national art show means everything to me. It would help pay for four years at an arts college. And if I could take some of my drawings and paintings to Italy or Paris and get commissioned, my family would never have to worry about money again."

Chase's heart thudded painfully at the relish in his words. Having grown up in one of the poorest parts of Los Angeles, she knew the desire for money, the consuming thought that it could solve everything.

"Well, pity. Arielle would've been a great model," Chase sighed in defeat, thinking about the girl's delicated bone structure and that harmless air around her and trying not to let the inner jealousy take over again.

There was a tense pause in the air, and then: "I know," the boy said quietly, "But since that's impossible, how would you like to model for me for a bit. Just to try it out."

He sounded nervous, but it was nowhere near what Chase was suddenly feeling in the pits of her stomach at his proposal. "I don't think that's such a good idea," she said hurriedly. After telling her how much winning the national art show would mean to him, she didn't feel like being the one responsible for his inevitable loss.

"It would only be to try it out. Sometimes, I never know what could inspire me until I actually start drawing," he assure her. "Tell you what. Why don't you come over to my house and I'll try sketching you, and if it makes you really uncomfortable, you can say no, and leave."

Chase worried her lip as she thought about it. On one hand, she was scared that she wouldn't make a good subject. On the other, it sounded sort of fun. Maybe it really couldn't be that bad. It would just be an interesting experience. Besides, she was sure that once he saw his drawing go down in flames with her as the subject, he would ask her politely to leave his house immediately and to never come back. "Okay, but it'd be nice if you told me you name first."

He colored slightly at that. "Of course. I nearly forgot. I'm Shane. Shane Deguerins. In fact, I should probably get your name too."

Before she could say anything, she heard someone call her voice behind her.

"Chase!" the voice said, and there was the sound of jogging feet on the grass as a tousled and worried Ryder came running towards her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Chase clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified. "I was trying to find the bathroom, but I got lost. I forgot I was going home with you today."

Ryder grinned as he moved to take her wheelchair into his hands, still dressed in his soccer cleats . "I figured once you didn't show up at the end of practice. It's a good thing I didn't just drive myself home and leave you here out on the grass."

Chase smiled gratefully at him and the image that he made, standing in the sun with his rumpled uniform.

"I guess you better get going then," Shane said, picking his bag up from the ground. "Just tell me whenever you're ready to help model for me."

Ryder snapped out of his daze and frowned when he heard that, really looking at the person next to Chase now that he'd said something alarming. Before, he'd been more concerned about her safety, but now that she was fine, the boy's words hit him clearly on the tip of his head.

"Modeling?" he asked, no longer smiling. Instead, he looked at the boy with a fresh eye. His jeans looked as if it had been worn countless of times, and his long-sleeved shirt had random holes near the cuffs and elbows. He had floppy, light brown hair that was messily parted to the left, and his dark blue eyes looked distinctly uncomfortable as they stared into Ryder's green ones. His tall, lanky frame shifted to the side as Ryder broke eye contact.

"It's just for inspiration," Chase said, even though she didn't know why she felt the sudden need to explain to Ryder that their modeling date didn't have anything romantic in its nature at all.

"Okay," Ryder said in a light tone, even though it felt forced. Reminding himself that he had no reason to be worried, he politely addressed Shane, to prove that he was not affected at all. "I guess you'll have to let me see how the drawings turn out then."

Shane nodded curtly at that, and then Ryder was wheeling Chase towards his car as fast as he could without making it seem suspicious. Behind them, Shane watched the two of them depart and then quietly left the field in the opposite direction.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! Next update should be sooner. And Shane Deguerins is the new main character. We won't really read much more from Duke, West, and Winter. From now on, it'll be Shane's POV. Please read and review! Thanks.


	7. Chapter 7

Er…so I owe people an explanation. Especially GoodBadAndEverythinInBetween and andthenshesaid because they have both been my most dedicated readers from the beginning and have PM'ed me asking me to update…

So, yeah. About that update. I promised andthenshesaid that I'd have something up a week and a half ago, but I ran into a bit of a problem. I don't remember this story anymore because I've basically lost inspiration for it. So, I went back and re-read Infamous and what I had for VC, only to find that all my storyline plots that I'd planned were no longer accessible to my memory.

So, what does this mean? I want to say that this story has been abandoned, but I can't bring myself to do it because it's the first thing I ever wrote and put up. So, give me until this Friday to get a new chapter up. Once I do that, updating should come 2-3 times a week. If I don't update this Friday, consider the story pretty much on hiatus indefinably.

I'm sorry about this, and thanks for everybody's interest in this story.

-Jack Tamara


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